
„ fill' 



NOTES, 

HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL, 



CONCERNING 



ELIZABETH. TOWN. 



ITS EMINENT MEN, 



CHURCHES AND MINISTERS 



BY NICHOLAS MURRAY 



ELIZABETH-TOWN: 

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY E. SANDERSON. 
18 4 4. 






TO THE 



a 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CONGREGATION, 



ELIZABETH-TOWN, 



THE FOLLOWING NOTES, 



FIRST PREPARED FOR THEIR INSTRUCTION, AND NOW PUBLISHED 



AT THEIR REQUEST, 



ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 



AS AN EXPRESSION OF SINCERE AFFECTION, 



By THEIR PASTOR, 



THE AUTHOR. 



PREFACE. 



The histor}' of the following Notes is very easily 
told. On my settlement in this town in July, 1833, 
I felt no little desire to make myself acquainted with 
the past history of the venerable Church which in the 
providence of God was committed to my care. I 
sought for its Records, but soon found that there were 
none reaching farther back than the ministry of Dr. 
Kollock. All beyond were lost amid the confusion of 
the war of the Revolution, or during the partial in- 
sanity of Mr. Austin. I next examined the Records 
of the Trustees, which, although extending back up- 
wards of one hundred years, yet contain but little 
beyond the mere details of business. From these 
details, however, I have derived much information, 
and several interesting facts. And with the excep- 
tion of the short " Sketch," prefixed to the "Church 
1* 



PREFACE. 



Manual, prepared by my predecessor, Dr. J. M'Dow- 
'If, T could find but little to satisfy my curiosity. 

J then determined, as far as possible, to draw up a 
Narrative of tlie Church and its Ministers, and " to 
begin with (he beginning." I searched for old re- 
:o:d~. and examined old books, and conversed with 
old people, and opened a correspondence with indi- 
viduals in different and distant parts of the country, 
descendants or relatives of individuals who have re- 
sided here, and the information thus collected lias, 
from year to year, been read to my people wlien col- 
lected in parish meeting for the transaction of busi- 
I'pss, on the first day of Januar3^ 

Thus these Notes were originally intended to refer 
only to the First Presbyterian Church : to it they 
now mainly refer. But as for nearly fifty years it 
v/as the only church in the place ; and as until the 
last cjuarter of a century three-fourths of all the in- 
Imbitants of the town were connected with it, the his- 
tory of that church is really the history of the town. 
It is pre-eminently the Historic Church of New- Jer- 
sey. And in attempting its history, I was unavoida- 
bly led to blend with it the history of the town. 



PREFACE. VII. 

Tlie Notes thus made atui read, greatly interested 
the people of my charge, and others that heard them, 
and heard of them. Until the passage of the follow- 
ing resolutions hy a unanimous vote, at a parish 
meeting of the First Presbyterian Ciiurch, held on 
the first of January last, all solicitations to give them 
to the public have been resisted : — 

" Whereas, our esteemed Pastor, Dr. Murray, has 
written a brief History of this Town and Congrega- 
tion from its earliest settlement to the present time, 
embracing many interesting incidents, in which our 
forefathers were prominent actors ; with short Bio- 
graphical Sketches of several eminent and beloved 
Men, whose memory is endeared to this Congregation ; 
the preparing of which has required much time and 
research : 

" Resolved, that the thanks of the Congregation be 
and are hereby respectfully presented to our Pastor, 
and that he be earnestly requested to grant a copy of 
the same for publication, 

" Resolved, that Messrs. John J. Bryant, EliasWi- 
nans and James F. Meeker be a committee to present 
Dr. Murray with a copy of the above, with powers to 
make such arrangements for publishing said history, 



Vlll. PREFACE. 

as they may deem consistent with the wishes and in- 
terest of the Congregation. 

" A true copy from the Minutes. 

" James R. Meeker, Clerk." 

No persons, but those who have made the trial, can 
estimate the difficulty of making Notes like these. 
Although no labor to give them accuracy has been 
withheld, and no incident on oral testimony has been 
related without being established by two or three wit- 
nesses, yet errors may be detected in these pages. I 
commit them to the public, deeply regretting that 
some one of the many eminent men who have here 
resided have never compiled the Annals of our an- 
cient Borough, and that the collecting of these Notes 
had not fallen into more competent hands, and earlier. 

N. M. 
Elizabeth-Town, April 1, 1844. 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Page 

Taking of Constantinople and its consequences, 13 

Discoveries of Columbus and Cabot, - - 14 

Sir Water Raleigh's settlement, - - - 15 

Original Grant of New-Jersey by the Duke of York, 16 

Policy of Berkley and Carteret, _ _ - 17 

Governor Carteret's arrival at Elizabeth-Town, 18 

The Elizabeth-Town Grant, - - - 19 

Elizabeth-Town Associates, - - - 20 

Conflicting Claims, ----- 21 

Governor Carteret's death, - - - - 22 

CHAPTER n. 

Description of Elizabeth-Town, - - - 23 

First General Assembly, - - - - 25 

Characterof the first laws, - - - - 26 

Boundaries of Elizabeth-Town, - - - 27 

Charter of the Borough of Elizabeth-Town, - 28 

CHAPTER III. 

First Inhabitants, where from, - - - 45 

First Presbyterian Church, - - - 45 

Barclay's statement, ----- 47 

Rev. John Harriman, _ _ - - 48 

Division into East and West Jersey, - - 49 

Proprietors surrender their rights, - - 50 



X. CONTENTS. 



Government of the Crown resumed, 


51 


Lord Cornbury, 


51 


Incident illustrating his t^Tanny, 


52 


Rtv. Mr. Melyne, 


53 


CHAPTER IV. 




Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, . _ - . 


54 


Extent of the parish in his day, 


56 


Church in Westfield organised, (Note,) 


56 


Salaries of Ministers and Governor, 


57 


Controversy in Synod of Philadelphia, 


58. 


New-Jersey College founded, 


58 


Death of Dickinson, _ _ - _ . 


59 


Rev. Elihu Spencer, D. D., 


60 


First Presbyterian Church Incorporated, 


61 


Act of Incorporation, _ _ _ - . 


62 


Governor Belcher, _ _ . _ . 


70 


CHAPTER y. 




Rev. Abraham Kcttletas, _ - - . 


71 


Rev. James Caldwell, _ _ - . 


72 


Origin of his family, _ . _ _ , 


73 


Church burned and INIrs. Caldwell shot, 


75 


Mr. Caldwell's death and funeral. 


76 


His Character, _ - - _ - 


77 


Account of his Children, - _ - 


79 


CHAPTER VI. 




Resistance to Impost Laws, - ^ - 


80 


Excitement in East Jersey, 


81 


Governor William Livingston, 


82 


General Ellas Dayton, _ _ . 


84 


Letter from Elias Boudinot, 


85 


Francis Barber, _ . _ . 


86 


His services and death, 


88. 



L 



CONTENTS, XI. 

Abraham Clark, 89 

His various services, ----- 90 
CPAPTER VII. 

Suffering of East Jersey during the Revolution, 92 

Fortifications built at Elizabeth-Town Point, - 92 

Committee of Safety, - - - - 93 

Capture of the Blue Mountain Valley, - - 93 

Great suffering of our citizens, - - - 95 

Connecticut Farms burned, ^ - - 96 

Springfield burned, ----- 97 

A brave incident, ----- 97 

A daring exploit, ----- 98 

Buildings burned, ----- 99 

Shades of the picture, - - - - 100 

Cornelius Hetfield, 101 

Petition to Congress, - - - - - 102 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Deplorable condition of the Town, - - 108 

Ministry of Dr. Ogden, and Mr. Armstrong, 109 

Elias Boudinot, L. L. D., - - - - 110 

The First Church erected, - - - - 112 

Rev. William Linn, D. D., - - - - 113 

Rev. David Austin, - - - - - 114 

His sickness and its effects, - - - 115 

Fourth Sabbath of May, 1796, - - - 116 

Mr. Austin's reply to the Committee, - 117 

Petition to the Presbytery of New- York, - 119 

Action of Presbytery, - _ - - 120 

His subsequent course, _ _ _ _ 122 

His Character, ------ 123 

The Rev. John Giles, - - - - 125 



XU. CONTENTS. 

Rev. Henry KoUock, D. D., ... 126 

Rev. John M'Dowell, D. D., ... 107 

CHAPTER IX. 

Protestant Episcopal Church, ... 128 

Second Presbyterian Church, - - - 132 

Methodist Episcopal Church, _ . _ 135 

Congregationalist and Baptist Churches, - 135 

CHAPTER X. 

Revivals of Religion, - - - - 136 

APPENDIX. 

Town Meeting, 1699, - - - - 161 

Second generation of Associates, - - 162 

The plan on which the Town was settled, - 162 

Incidents, - - - - - -163 

First Centennial Anniversary of the settlement of 

the Town celebrated, - - - - 164 

Abstract of last Census, - - - - 16.5 



NOTES, &c. 



CHAPTER I. 

The taking of Constantinople by the Turks in 
1453, an event which spread sadness and sorrow all 
over Christendom, seems to have been tlie leaditig 
instrumentaUty in the civil and reli<^ioiis regeneration 
of the world. The capital of the Greek en)pire was 
the residence of the scholars and learned men of that 
age ; and its fall, was the means of their dispersion 
all over Europe. Unable to stem the torrent of bar- 
barism and ignorance that rushed in with the tri- 
umphant arms of Mahomet II., they fled in every 
direction ; and wherever they wandered; they devoted 
themselves to the business of instruction. And thus 
they became the great promoters of the revival of 
learning which immediately succeeded the fall of the 
city of Constantine. 

In 1455, the art of Printing was invented — worth 
more than the gift of tongues to the church and the 
2 



14 DISCOVERIES OF COLUMBUS AND CABOT. 

world. In 1492, this Western World was discovered 
by Columbus; and in 1517, the immortal Luther 
blew the trumpet of the Reformation. 

These four great events, occurring within a single 
lifetime, iiave rendered the age of their occurrence 
second only in importance to that which is termed ia 
scripture " the fulness of time," and in which the 
Saviour died for the redemption of a world. Thus it 
appears, that before the great principles of civil and 
religious truth were unfolded, God prepared scholars 
to defend them, and the press to circulate them, and 
an asylum for their persecuted and banished be- 
lievers. 

The discoveries of Columbus in America, lay all of 
tliem to the South. In 1407, Cabot, the son of a 
Venetian pilot, and born in Bristol, sailed on a voy- 
age of discovery, under the patronage of Henry VII. 
of England. He discovered New Foundland and 
Saint Johns, and explored the coast as far as Caro- 
lina. Because of this discovery by Cabot, the English 
claimed the whole countr}^ South to Florida, on the 
principle of the law of nations, that whatever waste 
land is discovered is the property of the prince at 
whose expense the discovery is made. The younger 
Cabot was, beyond question, the most exlraorilinary 
man of his age ; and, although he gave to England 
a continent, the place of his sepulchre is un- 
known ! 

Many years pass away before any advantage is 
taken of the dicovcry of Cabot. In the year 1584f 



SIR WALTER RALEIGH's SETTLEMENT. 15 

Sir Walter Raleigh obtains for himself and heirs a 
patent from Glueen Elizabeth, to possess for ever 
whatever lands they might discover not possessed by 
a Christian prince, nor inhabited by a Christian peo- 
ple. In virtue of this patent, Sir Walter settled a 
colony in Carolina ; and, in honor of his patron and 
virgin queen, gave the name of Virginia to that whole 
country now extending from Maine to Virginia. The 
only memorable result of this colony was the intro- 
duction of that vile weed, tobacco, into England, and 
some lectures to his royal mistress on the various de- 
lights and benefits of its use. 

Without any regard to the rights of Raleigh, 
James I. granted a new patent of Virginia, as above 
described, to two cotnpanies, called the London and 
Plymouth companies, which met with but little suc- 
cess in their attempts to colonize it. A suit was en- 
tered in the King's Bench in reference to these pa- 
tents, which resulted in their forfeiture; and the title 
to Virginia reverted to the crown, which was again at 
full liberty to grant it to others in whole or in part. 

Up to this time New -Jersey was a part of Virginia. 
Subsequently, however, it was a part of the province 
of New-York, which, in 1664, extended " South to 
Maryland, East to New-England, Northward to the 
river of Canada, and Westward as far as land could 
be discovered." 

Because of the discovery of Cabot, the English 
claimed the right and title to the whole country from 
Maine to Florida ; but the Dutch gained possession 



IG ORIGINAL GRANT OF NEW-JERSEY. 

of what is now called New- York, and claimed it as 
theirs in virtue of a discovery made in 1609 by Hen- 
ry Hudson, who, in the employment of the Holland 
Fast India Company, was in search of a Northwest 
passage (o Ciiina. This gave great offence to Charles 
II., now filling the British throne : and for the purpose 
of dispossessing them he gave a patent to the Duke 
of York, his brother, for a large portion of the whole 
counlr\-, in which was included the whole territory 
now known as New-York and New-Jersey. To place 
the Duke in the possession of this country, Sir Robert 
Carr is sent over with a small fleet; and as the 
Dutch were ignorant of his object, and were unpre- 
pared for defence, he quietly lakes possession of New- 
Amsterdam. 

On the 24tli of June, IGGl, the Duke of York, 
now the possessor of the soil under patent from the 
crown, granted and conveyed to Lord John Berkley 
and Sir George Carteret, the tract of land lying be- 
tween the Hudson and the Delaware rivers, and 
extending from the ocean to the present Northerr> 
line of our Stale, for the yeaily rent of " twenty no- 
l)lcs, lawful money of England, to be paid in the 
Inner Temple, liondon, at the feast of Saint Michael 
the Archangel." It is to be regretted that we know 
60 little in reference to these individuals, so high in 
royal favor, the iullucnce of whose laws and acts is 
yet felt in our connnonwealth. We only know that 
Berkley was one of the Privy Council ; and that Car- 
teret was a member of I he same body, Treasurer of 



POLICY OF BERKLEY AND CARTERET. 17 

the Navy, and Vice-Chamborlain of the Royal House- 
Iiold. Carteret, it seems, did not always enjoy an 
unspotted reputation, as lie was expelled from the 
House of Commons in 1669 for confused accounts as 
Chamberlain. For some time previous to the grant 
to Berkley and Carteret, the district now included 
within the boundaries of our State was called New- 
Canary ; but after the grant it was called New-Jersey, 
in honor of Carteret, who w as a native of the Isle of 
Jersey, and who defended it with great valor against 
the Long Parliament in the civil w^ars. 

Berkley and Carteret are now the proprietors of 
New-Jersey, and their first care is to invite settlers to 
the province. In the pursuit of this object they mani- 
fest great sagacity. They prepared and published a 
Constitution, which, considering the day in which it 
was formed, contains >nany admirable provisions.* 
And although the first Constitution of New-Jersey, 
and granted by Lords Proprietors, it guards as care- 
fully the civil and religious rights of the people as that 
under which we now live. Whilst prelatical Virginia 
and puritanical Connecticut had each their blue laws, 
and those of the former no less absurd than those of 
the latter, it was an organic law of New- Jersey, that 
" No person shall be molested or questioned for any 
difference of opinion or practice in matters of religious 
concernment." And it further provides, that the Assein- 
bly shall have power to ajipoint as many preachers as 

* This may be seen at large in the " Grants, Concessions," &o. 
by Learning and Spiccr. 

2* 



18 CARTERET SETTLES AT ELIZABETn-TOWR". 

they see fit, and to establish their maintenance. It 
grants to every settler "aimed with a good musket, bore 
twelve bullets to the pound, with ten pounds of pow- 
der and twenty pounds of bullets, with bandaliers 
and mntch convenient, and with six months' provision 
for his own person, one hundred and fifty acres of 
land English measure/' It further grants to every 
parish two hundred acres of land for the support of 
' the ministry, to be located under the direction of the 
Assembly, and secures to the people the right to se- 
lect their own ministry. This is one of the many 
instances in which avarice has paid its homage to 
freedom. 

"With this charter, Philip Carteret, brother of Sir 
George the proprielor, came over as governor of the 
province. With thirty English settlers he reaches 
Elizabeth-Town, in August, 1G65, which he makes 
the capital of the province, when it yet contained only 
four houses ; and gave it the name of Elizabeth- 
Tow-n, in honor of the wife of his brother, Lady Eli- 
zabeth Carteret. He soon despatches messengers 
through all the adjacent provinces, and es[)ecially to 
New-England, to make known the " Concessions" of 
the proprietors, and to invite settlers. Tliese came in 
considerable numbers from New-England, and from 
Long Island. And soon their number was increased 
" by the accession of the Scotch, of whom there came 
a great number.* New-England Puritans, English 
Quakers, and Scotch Presbyterians, were the chief 

* Smith's History, p. G'2. 



THE ELIZABETH-TOWN GRAKT. 



19 



settlers of this portion of New-Jersey, and the formers 
of its moral character.* 

Previous to the arrival of Carteret, and before the 
grant of the Duke of York to Berkley and Carteret 
was yet known, John Bailey, Daniel Denton and 
Luke Watson, of Jamaica, Long Island, purchased 
of certain Indian chiefs residing on Siaten Island, a 
tract of land, on part of which Elizabeth-Town now 
stands. For this trad. Governor Richard Nicolls 
granted a patent to John Daker of New-York, John 
Ogden of Northampton, John Bailey, Luke Watson, 
and their associates. The parly to the purchase on 
the part of the Indians, were the sachems Mattano, 
Manomowanne and Connescomen. The tract extend- 
ed from the Raritan to the Passaic river, and from 
Arlhur Cull bay, which separates the main land from 
Staten Island, twice the length of its breadlh into the 
country. This tract, now embracing Piscataway, 
Amboy, Woodbridge, Rahway, Elizabeth-Town, 
Union, Springfield, Westfield, and how much beyond 
the Short Hills we cannot affirm, and containing five 
hundred thousand acres of land, was purchased for 
" twenty fathoms of trading cloth, two made coats, 
two guns, two kettles, ten bnrs of lead, twenty hand- 
fuls of powder, four hundred fathoms of while wam- 
pum, payable in one year from the day of entry upon 
said lands. "t This is what is afterwards known as 
"the Elizabeth-Town Grant;" and Baker, Ogden, 



* Bancroft, vol. ii. 32. 



t Learning and Spiccr, 67S. 



20 



THE ELIZABETH- TOWN ASSOCIATES. 



Baile}' and Watson, wiLli their associates, are those 
usually known as "the Elizabeth-Town Associates." 
The names of these associates, as lecoided in an old 
book of records of surveys in my possession, are as 
follows : — 



Capt. John Baker, 
John Ogdcn, 
Jolm Baily, 
Luke Watson, 
Thomas Young, 
Benjamin Price, 
John Woodruff, 
Philip Carteret, 
Robert Bond, 
Seely Champain 
William Meeker, 



Jcoffrey Jones 
George Ross, 
Joseph Bond," 
Matthias Hetfield, 
Barnabas Winds, 
Robert White, 
Peter Morss, ^ 

John Winans, 
Joseph Sayre, 
Richard Beach, 
Moses Tliompson, ~ 



Thomas Thompson,- John Gray, 

Sanil. Marsh, William Johnson,* 



William Piles, John Brocket, jr. 

Peter Coonhoven, Simeoik Rouse, 
John Brocket, William Trotter, 

James Bollon, John Ogden, jr. 

Jacob Melyen, Jonas Wood, 

Nicholas Carter,- Robert Morss, 
Jeremiah Peck, Mr. Lcprary, 

Isaac Whilohcad, Caleb Carwithc, 
Joseph Meeker, William Perdon, 

Humphry !<pinning, Stephen Osborn, 
George Morris, Joseph Osborn, 

George Pack, John Pope, 

William Oliver, Richard Painter, 

Charles Tooker. 

The imnies of many of these arc as familiar as 
household words in our community, and in East Jer- 
sey, dow n to the present day. 



Jonathan Ogdcn, 
Abraham Shotwell, 
V^David Ogden, 
Nathaniel Tuttlo, 
Benjamin Price, jr. 
Roger Lambert, 
Abraham Lawrence, 
John Hinds, 
Thomas I\Ioor, 
Joseph Frazey, 
Yokam Andross, 
Denis White, 
Nathaniel Norton, 
Great John Wilson, 
Hur Thompson,- 
Benjamin Oman, 
Evan Salsbury, 
Little John Wilson, - 
Stephen Crane, 
Henry Lyon, ' 
John Pr.rkcr, 
John Dickenson, 
Leonard Headley, 
Nathaniel Bonnel, 

Pardoy, 

Francis Barber, 



CONFLICTING CLAIMS. 



2t 



In this ''Grant" three townships were soon formed : 
Elizabeth-Town, Woodbriclge and Piscataway ; which 
were soon settled by emigrants chiefly from Long 
Island ; and Governor Nicolls gave to the whole tract 
the name of Albania,* in honor of his master the 
Duke, whose title was Duke of York and Albany. 
The claims of these Associates and those of the 
grantees of the Duke of York, Berkley and Carteret, 
came often into terrible conflict, and gave rise to com- 
motions deeply perplexing and seriously injurious to 
the settlement. Some of the Associates took new 
deeds for their lands from the Proprietors, but others 
resisted to the last; and although many suits at law 
were commenced, the diflkulties were never legally 
adjusted. It is obvious from the meagre history of 
the times that the Associates were (lie stronger party, 
and that public sympathy was in their favor, la 
1670 contention raged with great violence. The 
payment of quit-rents ^^•as demanded by the Proprie- 
tors and refused by the Associates. Disputes weie 
followed by confusion. And in 1672 the disaffected 
colonists sent delegates to a constituent Assembly at 
Elizabeth-Town,t which displaced Philip Carteret as 
Governor, and transferred his oflTice to tiie young and 
frivolous and dissolute James Carteret, who was a 
natural son of Sir George. Philip was compelled to 
retire to England, leaving John Berry as a deputy 
behind him, and James Bollen as secretary, lie re^ 

* Elizabeth-Town Bill in Chancery, Gordon, 27. 
t Bancroft, vol. ii. 34. 



22' GOVERNOR Carteret's death. 

turned in 1674, bringing with biin a pioclamalion of 
the King, and new instrucrions from Sir George, 
which had for a while a good efiect in restoring peace. 
He continued Governor until his deatfi in 1682. 

Although an amial)lej and in many points of cha- 
racter an excellent man, Philip Carteret encountered 
many dilficulties and hardships as Governor. His life 
was embittered by the ceaseless disputes between the 
Associates and Proprietors. His right to govern New- 
Jersey by the authority of the Proprietors, was called in 
question by the Governor of New-York, who held his 
commission from the Duke of York. In 16S0 he 
was seized by an armed force from New-York, and 
taken a prisoner to thai city, where he was imprison- 
ed, tried and acquitted. In partnership wilii his 
brother, the proprietor, a little settlement was formed 
on the bank of the creek, probably on the South side 
of Water-street, where he built a house for his resi- 
dence, the first government house of New-Jersey. He 
came to Elizabeth-Town when there were here but 
four houses, and these but log huts; and in 16S2, 
when he died, there were residing here one hundred 
and fifty families. Me died in this town ; and his 
remains lie somewhere in the grave-yard of the First 
Presbyterian Church. 

In proof that the controversy between the "Asso- 
ciates" and the grantees of the Duke of York contin- 
ued for a long time, and that it never was settled, we 
find in an old manuscript book in our possession, a 
record of a town-meeting held on November ISlh, 



DESCRIPTION OF ELIZABETH-TO'\VN. 4'6 

1729, at which Benjamin Bond, Samuel Potter, Jo- 
seph WoodrufT, Nathaniel Bonnel, John Blanchard, 
John Harriman and Joseph Bonnel, were appointed a 
committee with full powers to act in behalf of the 
Associates, and to defend their titles held under the 
purchase from the Indians and the patent from Gov- 
ernor Nicolls. And from the same old book we learn, 
that, as late as 1735, being seventy-one years after the 
purchase from the Indians, Joseph Williams, Jeremiah 
Crane, Samuel Miller, Caleb Jaffrey, John Crane, 
Joseph Halsey and Joseph Botmel, are appointed by 
the Associates to sell on their behalf a tract of land 
lying West from Baskenridge, held under the same 
title. 



CHAPTER II. 

For many years after the settlement of the Pro- 
vince, Elizabeth-Town was the largest and most im- 
proving town in it. Here were all the public offices, 
and here was the residence of most of the officers of 
the government. The place and people are thus de- 
scribed by Thomas Rudyard, in a letter dated May, 
1683 :— 

"My habitation with Samuel Groome is at Eliza- 
beth-Town ; and here we came first ; it lies on a 
fresh, small river ; with a tide, ships of thirty or forty 



24 DESCRIPTION OF ELIZABETII-TOWN. 

tons come before oiu" doors. Wc cannot call onr habi- 
tations solitary ; for wliat with public employ, I have 
little less company at my house daily than I had in 
George Yard, although not so many passes by my 
doors. The people are generally a sober professing 
people, wise in their generation, courteous in their 
behaviour, and respectful to us in oflice among them. 
As for the temperature of the air, it is wonderfully 
suited to the huiiiors of mankind ; the wind and 
weather rarely holding in one point, or one kind, for 
ten days together, 1 bless the liord I never had bet- 
ter health, nor my family ; my daughters are very 
well improved in that respect, and tell me they would 
not change their place for George Yard ; nor would I. 
People here are generally settled where the tide 
reaches." 

Gawcn Lawrie thus writes (o the proprietors, in a 
letter dated EIi?:abeih-Town, 1 Month 2tl, 1084: 

" Here wants nothing but people. Tliero is not a 
poor body in the province, nor that wants. Here is 
rbut\dance of provisions ; pork and beef at two pence 
per pound ; tlsh and fowl pletUy ; oysters I think 
would serve all England ; Indian wheat two shillings 
and six' pence per bushel; it is exceeding good for 
food every way, and two or three hundred fold in- 
crease; cyder good and plenty for one penny per 
quart ; good drink that is made of water and mo- 
lasses stands in about two shillings per barrel, whole- 
some like our eight shilling beer in England ; good 
venison plenty, brought us in at eighteen pence per 



GENERAL ASSEMBLY CONSTITUTED. 25 

quarter ; eggs at three pence a dozen ; all things very 
plenty ; land very good as ever I saw ; vines, walnuts, 
peaches, strawberries, and many other things plenty 
in the woods." 

By the " Concessions and Agreement of the Lords 
Proprietors," a General Assembly was established, 
consisting of the Governor, a Council, and a House of 
Burgesses. This Assembly held it first meeting at 
Elizabeth-Town, on the 26th of May, 166S. The 
Council consisted of seven, and the House of Bur- 
gesses of eleven members, John Ogden, sen'r, and 
John Bracket, were the members from Elizabeth- 
Town. It is very easily inferred that a New-England 
influence was predominant in this first colonial legis- 
lature, as we find the chief features of the Puritan 
codes transferred to the statutt^ book of New-Jerse}'. 
After sitting four days, and passing sundry laws, they 
adjourned to the third of November, when the Bur- 
gesses were increased by the addition of some dele- 
gates from the river Delaware. They sit but a few 
days ; and from the letters which pass between the 
Governor and Council on the one hand, and the Bur- 
gesses on the other, we conclude that it was dissolved 
amid no little excitement. 

The inquiry naturally arises, what was the charac- 
ter and purport of the laws passed by this first colo- 
nial legislature? The very first act respects the pun- 
ishment of disobedience to lawful authority ; and the '.:; 
second, the defence of the rising Commonwealth, by ;j 
enacting that all males from sixteen to sixty should ^'' 
3 " • 7\ 



56 CHARACTER OF THE FIRST LAWS. 

be provided with fire-arms. The next are called 
''Capital Acts," in which severe punishments are 
enacted against arson, murder, perjury, buggery, so- 
domy, burglary, stealing, conspiracy, undutiful chil- 
dren, rapes, night-walking, and drinking " in tapp- 
houses after nine of the clock at night." It was also 
solemnly enacted, that " if any person be found to be 
a witch, either male or female, they shall be put to 
death." It was also enacted, that " no son, daughter, 
maid or servant, without consent of parents, guardians 
or overseers, should marry ; nor then, without being 
tiiree times published in some public meeting or kirk 
near the party's abode, or notice being set up in wri- 
ting at some public house near where they lived, for 
fourteen days before." 

Although in May, 1668, it was enacted that " the 
General Assembly are to mieet on the first Tuesday 
in November next, and so to continue their meeting 
yearly on the same day until they shall see cause to 
alter the said time of meeting," we find no record of 
its meeting from November, 1668. to November, 167.5. 
It probably diil not meet during the intervening years, 
owing to the great excitement and controversy be- 
tween the Associates and Proprietors, and the confu- 
sion caused by tlie Constituent Assembly of 1672, 
which displaced Governor Carteret. In 1674 he re- 
turns from England with new instructions from the 
Proprietors ; and the third session of the Legislature 
commences in 167,5, of which Henry liyon and Ben- 
jamin Price were the Burgesses from Elizabeth-lVwiii 



BOUNDARIES OF ELIZABETH-TOWN. 27 

And, with few exceptions, the General Assembly held 
its annual sessions in this town during the subsequent 
seven years. Up to 1682 the sessions of the Supreme 
Court were held here. Here were all the public 
buildings. There is not now a trace of these public 
buildings in existence ; nor does even tradition point 
out the site on which they stood. In 1686 the Assem- 
bly met at "Amboy Perth." We know not that it ever 
afterwards met regularly at this place. It alternated 
between Amboy and Burlington, occasionally meeting 
here, until it became stationary at " Trentown." 

In 1693, the Assembly resolved '• That the town- 
ship of Elizabeth-Town shall include all the land 
from the mouth of Rahway River West to Woodbridge 
stake, and from thence Westerly along the line of the 
county to the partition line of the Province ; and from 
the mouth of said Rahway River, up the Sound to the 
mouth of Bound Creek, and from thence to the Bound 
Hill, from thence Northwest to the partition line of 
the Province."* Within these lines, if we rightly 
understand them, were included Baskenridge, Pluck- 
amin, and a part of Lamington, now lying in Som- 
erset county. 

On the 8th day of February, 1739, Lewis Morris 
being Captain-General, Governor and Commander-in- 
Chief of the Province, and in the thirteenth year of 
George II., the Borough of Elizabeth received the fol- 
lowing act of incorporation : — 

* Learning and Spicer, p. 329. 



28 ORIGINAL CHARTER OF 

" George the Second, by the grace of God of 
Great Britain, France and Ireland King, Defen- 
der of the Faith, &c. : To all to whom these 
presents shall come, Greeting : — 
" Whereas our loving subjects, Joseph Bonnel, An- 
drew Joline, Thomas Price, John Ross, John Blan- 
chard, John Crane, Thomas Clark, Maithias HetfieliJ, 
Noadiah Potter, John Halsted, Nathaniel Bonne), 
Samuel Woodruff, Samuel Marsh, Jonathan Hamp- 
ton, William Chetwood, Edward Thomas, Cornelitrs 
Hetfield, and many other inhabilants and freeholdcFS 
in Elizabeth-Town, in our County of Essex, in our 
Province of Nova-Cajsarea or New-Jersey, have late- 
ly by their humble petition presented to our (rusty and 
well-beloved Lewis Morris, Esquire, Captain-General 
and Governor-in-Chief of our said Province of New- 
Jersey, in America ; in behalf of themselves and oth- 
ers the freeholders and inhabitants of the said town 
have humbly pray'd for our Royal Grant by letters 
patent under our great seal of our said Province of 
Nova-Cffisarea or New-Jersey, to incorporate tliem in- 
to a body corporate and politic, with perpetual suc- 
cession, by whatsoever name our said Governor and 
Commander-in-Chief shall think tit; and that alt and 
singular the lands and tenements within the said town 
may for ever be within the limits of the said free town 
and borough corporate, and for such immunities and 
privileges as may be necessary for the well ordering 
and ruling (hereof: We being willing to grant the 
reasonable requests and prayers of all our loving sub- 



THE BOROUGH OF ELIZABETH. 29 

jectSj and to promote good order among them : Kuow 
ye therefore that we, considering the premises, and 
being wiHing for the future that a firm, certain and 
peaceable government may be estabhshed within the 
said town of Elizabeth-Town, do of our especial 
grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, by these 
presents will, ordain, grant and constitute, that the 
aforesaid town of Elizabeth-Town, from henceforth 
for ever may and shall be, and is-hereby, made and 
constituted and ordained, to be a Free Town and Bo- 
rough of itself; and that all the houses and buildings, 
lands, waters, water-courses, ponds, pools, rivers, 
brooks, meadows, marshes, soyle, lands and grounds,, 
situate, lying and being in the county of Essex and 
province aforesaid. Beginning at the mouth of Rah 
way River where it fails into the Sound, thence run- 
ning to the mouth of Robison's Branch, thence West 
twelve miles, thence Northerly on a direct line to the 
mouth of Dead River where it empty's itself into 
Passaick River, thence dqv/n the Passaick River to 
where Minisink Path crosseth the same, thence on a 
direct line to the bluff end of the mountain called tha 
North Mountain, from thence along the foot of the 
said mountain to the division line between Newark 
and EUsabelh-Towa aforesaid, theoco as that line 
runs to Dividen Hill, thence to the head of the creek 
called Bound Creek, thence down the said crsdk to 
Arthur Cull Bay, thence down the said bay io th& 
sound which parts Staten Island from Eiiisabsth- 
Town, and thence down tha sound lo where it begiaiij 
a* 



30 ORIGINAL CHARTER OF 

from hencelbrlh and for ever are and sliall be within 
the metes, bounds and jurisdiction of tiie said Free 
Town and Borough of Elizabeth ; and that all and 
sincfular the inhn,hitants of the said to^vn of Elizabeth 
aforesaid, and their successors, from henceforth and 
for ever, may and shall be one body corporate and 
politic, in deed, action and name, and shall be called, 
named and distinguished by the name of the Free 
Borough and Tow^i of Elizabeth : And further, we 
have willed, given, granted, constituted, appointed 
and ordained, and by this our present charter, of our 
especial grace, certain knowledge and mere motion 
we do, for us, our heirs and successors for ever, will, 
give, grant, constitute, appoint and ordain, that there 
shall in the said borough or town corporate from 
henceforth be a body politic, consisting of a Mayor, 
Recorder, six Aldermen, six Common Council-men 
or Assistants, one Sheriff, one Coroner, one Cham- 
berlain or Treasurer, one Town Clerk, one Marshal, 
one High Constable and six Petty Constables, four 
Assessors and four Collectors of Taxes, and six Over- 
seers of the Poor — to be assigned, nominated, elected, 
chosen, appointed and sworn in and for the said bo- 
rough or town corporate, as is herein and hereby ap- 
pointed, directed and mentioned, to continue in suc- 
cession for ever : And for the more full and perfect 
erection of the said corporation or body politic, to con- 
sist, continue and be of a Mayor, Recorder, six Alder- 
men, six Common Council-men or Assistants, and oth^ 
frs the before mentioned officers and ministers of th.e 



THE BOROUGH OF ELIZABETH 31 

said boroLigli and town, we, of our especial j^race, cer- 
tain knowledge and mere motion, do by these pre- 
sents, for us, our heirs and successors, create, make, 
ordain, constitute, nominate and appoint, our trusty 
and well-beloved Joseph Bonnel, Esq'r, to be the first 
and new Mayor of said Borough and Town of Eliza- 
beth and Clerk of the Market thereof, giving and 
granting unto the said Joseph Bonnel, the present 
Mayor and Clerk of the Market, and unto the suc- 
ceeding Mayors and Clerks of the Market, power and 
autliority to do, execute and perform, whatsoever shall 
or does relate and appertain to the said offices, and 
therein to remain and continue until another fit person 
shall be chosen, elected and sworn inio the said ofRces, 
as herein after is directed and appointed : And we do 
also, for us, our heirs and successors, by these pre- 
sents, create, make, ordain, nominate and appoint, 
our trusty and well-beloved John Blanchard, Esq'r, 
to be the present Recorder of the said Borough and 
Town of Elizabeth, to do and execute all things 
which unto the office of Recorder of the said borough 
or town corporate doth or may belong or in any man- 
ner appertain, and to continue and be continued in the 
said office of Recorder, and to execute the same until 
another fit person shall be by us, our heirs and success- 
ors, appointed and sworn into the said office: And we do 
hereby appoint that the Governor or Commander-in- 
Chief for our said Province of New- Jersey for the time 
being, at any time or times when and as often as 
they or any of them shall think fit, may displace and 



32 ORIGINAL CHARTER OF 

remove the said Recorder or any oLlier Recorder here- 
after to be appointed : And we do. for us, our lieirs 
and successors, assign, ordain, nominate, constitute 
and appoint, our well-beloved Andrew Joliiie, Mat- 
thias Hetfield, Thomas Price, John Ross, John Crane 
and Thomas Clark, Esquires, inhabitants of the said 
borough or town corporate, piesent Aldermen of tiie 
same borough or town corporate of Elizabeth ; and 
INoadiah Potter, John Halsted, Nathaniel Bonnel, 
Samuel Woodruff, Samuel Marsh and Jonathan 
Hampton, gentlemen, to be the Assistants and Com- 
mon Council of the said borough and town : And we 
do also hereby nominate and appoint William Chet- 
wood, Esq'r, to be our present Sheriff of the said bo- 
rough and town corporate ; and Joseph Bonnel, Esq'r, 
present Mayor, to be present Coroner of the said bo- 
rough and town corporate ; and Jonathan Dayton to 
be present Chamberlain and Treasurer of the said 
borough and town corporate ; and Thomas Hill to be 
present Marshal of the said borougli and town corpo- 
rate ; and also, we do hereby nominate and appoint 
John Radley, George Ross, junior, Daniel Marsh and 
John Scudder, Assessors ; Robert Ogden, John Odle. 
John Terrill and William Clark, Collectors ; James 
Townley, High Constable, and Robert Little, Na- 
thaniel Price, Richard Harriman, John Looker, John 
Craige and David Dunham, to be Pettil Constables^ 
for the said borough and town corporate ; and we do 
also, by these presents, nominate and appoint Henry 
Garthwaite, Cornelius Hetfield, John Radley, senioi, 



THE BOROUail OF ELIZABETH. S3 

John Allert, Epliraim Marsh and Daniel Day, to be 
present Overseers of the Poor of the said borough and 
town corporate: And we do further, of our especial 
giace, certain knowledge and mere motion, for us, 
our heirs and successoKs, will, give, grant and ap- 
point that the said Mayor, Aldermen and Common 
Council now be, and their successors shall for ever 
hereafter be, in deed, fact and name, a body corpo- 
rate and politic, and that they the said body corporate 
and politic, shall be known and distinguished in all 
deeds, grants, bargain?, sales, writings, evidences, min- 
uments or otherwise howsoever, and in all courts for 
ever hereafter plead and be impleaded by the name of 
the Mayor, Aldermen and Commonalty of the Free 
Borough and Town of Elizabeth ; and that tlie said 
Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Council- 
men, by the name aforesaid, shall be able and in law 
capable to have, get, acquire, purchase, receive and 
lake and possess, lands, tenements, hereditaments, 
jurisdicons and franchises, as well without as within 
the said borough and town corporate, to them and 
tiieir successors, in fee simple or otherwise howsoever; 
and also goods, chattels and other things, of what na- 
ture or quality soever; and to grant, bargain, sell, let, set 
or assign, lands, tenements, hereditaments, goods and 
chattels, contract and to do all other things whatso- 
ever by the name aforesaid, in as full and ample man- 
ner, to all intents and purposes, as any person or 
other body politic and corporate is able to do by the 
laws of our realm of England or of our said province 



34 ORICilNAL CHARTER OP 

of New- Jersey : And of our furilier grace, cerlaiu 
knowledge and mere motion, to the intent tlie said 
corporation and body politic by these presents created 
and begun may have perpetual succession and con- 
tinue for ever, and we do for us, our heirs and suc- 
cessors, hereby will, give and grant, unto the said 
Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Council- 
men, and to their successors forever, that the Mayor 
and Aldermen of the said borough and town of Eliza- 
beth, for the time being, shall and may from time to 
time, and as often as they shall think meet, admit and 
receive under the common seal of the said corpora- 
tion, to be of the commonalty of the said borough 
and town corporate, such and so many persons as 
ihey the said Mayor and Aldermen, or tiie Mayor and 
greater pari of the Aldermen for the time being, shall 
think meet ; and every person and persons so as afore- 
said admitted and received, shall immediately there- 
after be freemen of (he said borough and town corpo- 
rate, and have and enjoy all such the same and so 
many privileges, franchises and imnun)iiies as if the 
said person or persons had been especially and parli- 
culatly named in this our royal charier to be of the 
same commonalty ; and that every person so to be 
made a freeman, shall pay on liis being made a free- 
man, for the use of the said Mayor, Recorder, Alder- 
nien and Common Council-men, and their successors 
for ever, a sum not exceeding five pounds proclama- 
tion money ; and we do for us, our heirs and succes- 
sors, give and grant unto the said Mayor, Recordefj 



THE BOROUGH OF ELIZABETH. 60 

Aldermen and Common Council-men, and to their 
successors for ever, full power to ask, demand and 
receive the same to their own use and behoof, without 
any accompt thereof to be given to us, our heirs and 
successors, or to any other person or persons whatso- 
ever ; and no person or persons whatsoever other that! 
freemen, shall hereafter use any art, trade, mystery 
or manual occupation within the said borough and 
town of Elizabeth, or the liberties and precincts there- 
of, (except in the time of fairs there to be kept and dur- 
ing the time of the continuance of such fairs only ;) 
and in case any person or persons whatsoever not be- 
ing freemen of the said borough, shall at any time 
hereafter use or exercise any art, trade, mystery or 
manual occupation, or shall by himself or other seller 
expose to sale any manner of merchandize or wares 
whatsoever by retail, in any house, shop, place or 
standing within the said borough or liberties thereof, 
(no fair being then kept within the said borough,) and 
shall persist therein after warning to him or them 
given or left by the appointment of the Mayor of the 
said borough for the time being, at the place or places 
where such person or persons shall so use or exercise 
any art, trade, mystery or manual occupation, ©r shall 
sell or expose to sale any wares or merchandize afore- 
said by retail, then it shall be lawful for such Mayor 
to cause such shop window to be shut up, and also 
to impose a reasonable fine for such offence, not ex- 
ceeding five pounds for every offence, and the same 
fine or fines so imposed to levy and take by warrant 



56 ORIGINAL CHARTER OF 

under the common seal of the said borough, by dis- 
tress and sale of the goods and chattels of such 
ofTender, or by any otiier lawful ways and means 
whatsoever, to the use of the said corporation and their 
successors • Provided, that no person or persons be 
made free as aforesaid but such as are our natural 
born subjects, or so made by act of Assembly of our 
said province, or who has our letters of denization: 
iind further, of our especial grace, certain knowledge 
and mere motion, we do by these presents, for us, our 
heirs and successors, will, give and grant unto the 
said Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Coun- 
cil, that the said Joseph Bonnel and ins successors. 
Mayors of the said borough and town of Elizabeth 
for the time being, shall have the chaige and free 
government of the said borough and tow-n of Eliza- 
beth during the time of his or their beating the said 
office, in as full and ample manner as is usual and 
customary for other Mayors to have in like corpora- 
tions in our realm of England ; and further, because 
the said Mayor for the time being may many times 
have just occasion to be absent from the said town 
either on the public affairs thereof or for his own pri- 
vate respects, or may by sickness be incapable of do- 
ing the duties of his said office, we do therefore for 
us, our heirs and successors, by these presents, give 
and grant unto the said Mayor, Aldermen and Com- 
monalty, and to their successors, that the said Jo- 
seph Bonnel and his successors, Mayor of the said 
!x)rough and town of Elizabeth for the time being, 



THE BOROUGH OF ELIZABETH. 3f 

and each of thein for ever, shall liave full power and 
authority frorn time to time during his year of govern- 
ment, with the consent of the said Aldermen of the 
said town for the time being or the greater number of 
them, to depute and appoint one of the Aldermen of 
the said borough for the time being in the place of the 
said Mayor of the said borough and town for the time 
being to be his Deputy, and as his Deputy in all mat- 
ters and respects to act and do all things which to the 
office of Mayor of the said borough and town within 
the limits and precincts thereof do or ought to belong, 
dijring the sickness or in the absence of the said May- 
or for the time being ; and we do hereby will and 
grant that every such Deputy or person so to be ap- 
pointed, shall have full power and authority to act and 
do, in the absence or during the sickness of the Mayor 
for the lime being, all and singular those things which 
to the office of Mayor of the said borough belongs or 
shall belong or appertain, to all intents and purposes, 
the Mayor of the said borough for the time being, by 
virtue of these presents or otherwise hath, shall or 
ought, to have : And we further, for us, our heirs and 
successors, will, ordain and grant, that in case it 
should happen the present Mayor of the said borough, 
or any of his successors Mayor of the said borough 
for the time being, shall dye during the time of his 
mayoralty, then and in such case, upon and after 
the death of such Mayor, such Alderman for the time 
being who shall have been so appointed to act in the 
place of or as Deputy to such Mayor, shall and he is 
4 



38 ORIGINAL CHARTER OF 

liereby appointed and declared Mn)'or of the said bo- 
rough, and to continue and be continued in and to 
execute the same office of Ma3'or of the said borough 
from the death of such Mayor so dying until another 
fit person shall be chosen and sworn into the said office 
of Mayor of the said borough and town in such man- 
ner as in these presents is hereafter directed for the 
respective Mayers to be chosen and sworn, and so as 
often as such case shall happen : And we do further, 
of our especial grace, certain knowledge and mere 
motion will, and by these presents for us, our heirs 
and successors grant and give unto the said Mayor, 
Aldermen and Commonalty of the said borough and 
town of Elizabeth, and to their successors for ever, 
that they and their successors shall and may have and 
hold in the name of us, our heirs and successors, one 
Court of Record within the said borough and town of 
Elizabeth and the liberties and precincts thereof, upon 
the first Tuesday in the month of March, June, Sep- 
tember and December in every year, before the May- 
or or his Deputy or the Recorder for the time being, 
and any two or more of the Aldermen for the time 
being, or any three or more of them, (whereof the 
Mayor or his Deputy or the Recorder for the time be- 
ing to be one,) who shall and may hold pleas and 
have cognizance of all and all (nanner of plaints, ac- 
tions and pleas of any lands and tenements within 
the said borough and town of Elizabeth; and also of 
all actions of trespass, vi and armis, (fcc, replevin, 
ejectments, trover and conversion, trespass on the 



THE BOROUGH OF ELIZABKTH. 39 

case, debt, detinue, covenant, deceits, contracts, con- 
tempts, penalties, forfeitures, and ail other actions and 
pleas, as well real and personal as mixed, arising and 
accruing within the said borough and town of Eliza- 
beth and the limits thereof, together with full power 
and authority to hear and determine the same, and 
such actions and pleas and judgments thereon to ren- 
der, and executions thereof to award and make, and 
lo act and do every thing therein in such manner and 
form, and by such and the like methods, process and 
proceedings, as fully and amply as in other courts of 
record in such and the like cases is used or can or may 
be acted and done, according to the laws of that part 
of our kingdom of Great Britain called England and 
of our said province of New-Jersey : And further, we 
of our especial grace, certain knowledge and mere 
motion, have willed, given and granted, and by these 
presents do, for us, our heirs and successors, will, give 
and grant unto the Mayor, Aldermen and Common- 
alty of the said borough and town of Elizabeth, and 
lo their successors for ever, that the Mayor, Deputy 
Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen of the said borough 
for the time being, be and shall be at all times for ever 
hereafter, and hereby are assigned to be Justices, and 
each of them a Justice, of us, our heirs and successors, 
the Peace of us, our heirs and successors within the 
borough aforesaid and the limits, jurisdiction and 
extent thereof to keep, and that they the said Mayor, 
Deputy Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen of the said 
borough for the time being, or any three of them. 



40 ORIGINAL CHARTER OF 

(whereof we will the Mayor, Deputy Mayor or Re- 
corder for the time being to be one,) shall and may for 
ever hereafter yearly hold and keep four Courts of 
General Sessions of the Peace in and for the said bo- 
rough and town of Elizabeth, to begin at certain 
times in the year, (o wit ; one of them to begin on 
the first Tuesday in the month of March, another on 
the first Tuesday in June, another on the first Tues- 
day in September, and the other on the first T'uesday 
in December in every year, each of which Sessions 
of the Peace shall and may last, continue and be held 
for any time not exceeding three days; and also that 
ihesaidMayoi-jDeputyMayor, Recorder and Aldermen 
of the said borough for the time being, or any three 
or more of them, (whereof we will the Mayor, Deputy 
Mayor or Recorder for the time being to be one,) shaU 
and may for ever hereafter have full power and au- 
thority to enquire of, hear and determine, within the 
said borough and town of Elizabeth, all and all man- 
ner of felonies, imprisonments, riots, routs, oppressions, 
extortions, foreslallings, regratings, trespasses, offences, 
and all and singular other w ills and deeds whatsoever 
within the said borough, from time to time perpetrated, 
done, arising or happening, whicli to the oflTice of jus- 
tices of the peace are incumbent, or do in any man- 
ner belong, or which hereafter shall happen to belong 
or be incumbent on them, or which in any manner 
before justices of the peace ought or may be inquired 
into, heard and determined, together with the correc- 
tion and punishment thereof, and to do and execute 



THE BOROUGH OP ELIZABETH. 4t 

all Other things within the said borough and the liber- 
ties and precincts thereof, as fuli}^, freely and entirely, 
and in as ample manner and form, as justices of the 
peace of us, our heirs and successors, any where with- 
in that part of our kingdom of Great Britain called 
England, by the laws, statutes and customs of Eng- 
land, or by any other legal method whatsoever, here- 
tofore had exercised or hereafter to be had or exercised, 
could; can or might do, and in as ample manner and 
form as if the same had been in these our letters pa- 
tent particularly and by special words contained and 
mentioned ; and that the said justices of the peace of 
us, our heirs and successors in the borough and town 
of Elizabeth aforesaid, may have and exercise juris- 
diction in all causes, matters and things whatsoever, 
which to justices of the peace of our county of Essex, 
in our province aforesaid, in any manner do, may or 
ought to belong : And we do further will, and by 
these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, give 
and grant unto the said Mayor, Aldermen and Com- 
monalty of the said borough and town of Elizabeth, 
and to their successors, that they and their successors 
from henceforth. for ever hereafter shall and may have 
within the said borough, a fit and discreet man to be 
and who shall be called the Town Clerk of the bO' 
rough aforesaid, to act and do all the things within 
the borough aforesaid which to any town clerk of and 
in any borough or town incorporated any where in 
that part of our kingdom of Great Britain called Eng' 
land, by virtue of his office can or ought to do ; and. 
4* 



42 ORIGINAL CHARTER OF 

also, that for ever hereafter the town clerk of the said 
borough for (he time being shall also be clerk of the 
court of record to be held before the Mayor or his De- 
puty or the Recorder and any two or more of the Al- 
dermen of the said borough and town of Elizabeth 
aforesaid, and also clerk of our peace and of the peace 
of our heirs and successors, and of the sessions of the 
peace for and in the said borough and town, from 
time to time to be held, and all and singular those 
things which to the office and offices of such clerk of 
the peace and of the sessions of the peace do and shall 
appertain to do, act and execute, and also shall and 
may require, demand, take, accept, hold, keep and en- 
joy, all fees, perquisites and profits which may to any 
such common clerk, clerk of the peace and of the ses- 
sions of the peace, do or ought to belong, or which to 
any clerk of any inferior court of record in our said 
province of New- Jersey do or ought to belong ; and 
we do hereby, for us, our heirs and successors, nomi- 
nate, constitute and appoint Michael Kearney, Esq'r, 
to be present common clerk of the said borough and 
town of Elizabeth, and also clerk of the court of re- 
cords aforesaid, and clerk of the peace and of the ses- 
sions of the peace for and in the said borough and town 
of Elizabeth so as aforesaid to be held, to continue in 
the said offices during his good behaviour, and to act 
and execute the same offices and places by himself or 
his sufficient deputy ; and that after the death or legal 
removal of him the said Michael Kearney from the 
exercises of the said places and offices in the corpora- 



TFIE BOROUGH OF ELIZABETH. 43 

tion aforesaid, shall and may for ever thereafter nomi- 
nate and appoint some other fit person to the same, in 
such manner as herein after is directed : And further, 
of our especial grace, certain knowledge and mere mo- 
tion, we do h)' these presents, for us, our heirs and 
successors, give and grant unto the said Mayor, Alder- 
men and Commonalty of the said borough and town 
of Elizabeth, and to their successors for ever, that 
they and their successors shall have a Common Seal, 
under which they shall and may pass all grants, war- 
rants, deeds and specialties and other the affairs and bu- 
siness of concerning the said corporation, which shall 
be engraven in such form and with such inscription 
as shall be devised by the Mayor, Aldermen and Com- 
mon Council-men of the said borough and town of 
Elizabeth for the time being." 

[The Charter then gives the Mayor, Aldermen and Common 
Council authority to build a Common Hall or Town House; to 
establish Ordinances, By-Laws, &c. ; to divide the Borough into 
Wards; and to appoint Inferior Officers. It provides that the 
Mayor be chosen annually " by the vote of the greatest number 
of them the said Mayor, Aldermen and Common Councii-men ;" 
that the Aldermen and Common Council be chosen triennially, 
«' by the vote of the greater number of the Freeholders and Free- 
men of the said Borough;" and prescribes the oaths of office to 
be taken by the respective officers. It then gives the Mayor, Al- 
derraen and Common Council power to grant licenses to Tavern- 
keepers ; to establish " one free Market on the Wednesday in 
every week, and one Fair to begin and be holden v;ithin the said 
Borough and Town on the first Tuesday in October yearly ;" and 
provides for the election, " by the greater number of the votes of 
the Freemen and Freeholders residing within the said Borough," 
of one or two Burgesses (as the crown should direct) to repre- 



44 ORIGINAL CHARTER. 

sent the Borough in the future sessions of the General Assembly 
of the Province; — which provisions, in consequence of the space 
they occupy, are thus condensed. The Charter concludes as 
follows : — ] 

" To HAVE AND TO HOLD, all and singular, (he 
privileges, advantages, liberties, immunities, franchises 
and all other the premises herein and hereby granted 
and given, or which are meant, mentioned or intended 
to be herein and hereby given and granted unto them 
the said Mayor, Aldermen and Coiiimonalty of the 
said free borough and town of Elizabeth, and to their 
l)eirs and successors for ever ; yielding and paying 
therefor yearly and every year for ever hereafter, unto 
us, our heirs and successors, at the Court-House in the 
said Borough, on (he second Tuesday in the month of- 
March, one Fatted Calf, if (he same be legally de- 
manded. In testimonie whereof, we have caused 
these our letters to be made patent, and the Great Seal 
of our said Province of New- Jersey to be hereunto af- 
fixed. Witness our trusty and well-beloved Lewis 
Morris, Esq'r, our Captain-General, Governor and 
Commander-in-Chief in and over our said Province, 
&c. this eighth day of February, in the thirteenth year 

of our reign, Anno Dom. 1739." 

( Great ) 
I Seal. S 



FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 45- 

CHAPTER III. 

e 
From the pieceding narrative it will be seen that 

the first inhabitants of this town formed a mixed pop- 
ulation, made up of emigrants from New-England, 
England, Long Island, and Scotland. As the Asso- 
ciates were chiefly from New-England and Long 
Island ; as Governor Carteret sent messengers to New- 
England to invite settlers, whose mission was greatly 
successful ; and as in a short time there was a large 
accession of the Scotch, we may safely infer that a 
large majority of the first settlers were Congrega-^ 
tionalists or Presbyterians. And with equal safety we 
may infer that a portion of the English emigrants 
were Episcopalians ; but not probably many even of 
these, as much of the emigration from England at 
this time was in consequence of the intolerance of the 
Establishment, as wielded by the tyrannical Stuarts 
and their pliant prelates. 

The First Presbyterian Church is the oldest in the 
town ; indeed it is the oldest congregation organized 
for the worship of God in the English language, in 
the State. The precise year of its organization is 
now unknown ; but from the character of the first 
settlers, who were always in the habit of carrying 
with them the Church, the school and the " godly 
minister," it must be nearly coeval with the town. 
As in 1664 there were here only four log huts, it 
could not be formed much earlier than 1666 or 166T.. 



46 FlilST CHURCH EDIFICE. 

When the old Piesbyteiian Church, biirneil during 
the RevoUition, was erected, is also uncertain. It 
stood \vlj|eie the First Presbyterian Church now 
stands, and tlie following is as correct a description 
of it as can be gleaned from its records, and from 
what the aged fathers, in whose memory it yet lives, 
slate concerning it. It was a building of wood, with 
galleries ; and when first erected was small. It had 
a high steeple w'ith a town clock in it, of which a 
Mr. Miller had the caie for many years. We infer 
from an Act passed in 1694 for settling and regula- 
ting the County Courts, that the General Assemblies 
held under the Proprietors sat in this house ; and that 
so also did the Supreme Court. In that year it was 
enacted that two Courts of Sessions should be held 
in each county in the province ; and that in Essex 
they should meet at Elizabeth-Town on the second 
Tuesday of March, in " the public Meeting-house." 
In 1766 this Church was enlarged by an addition of 
twenty feet in the rear. In 1767 the pulpit was or- 
namenletl liy the hidies with an elegant set of cur- 
tains which cost twenty-seven pounds. For many 
years there was a part of the Church not seated, pro- 
bably for the accommodation of those that attended 
the Legislature and the Courts ; but after its enlaige- 
mcnt it was all neatly seated. This old teniple, 
among the first erected in the State for the worship 
of God, and the only one in this town for nearly half 
a century from its first settlement, was fired by the 
(,orch of a refugee on the 25th of January, 1780 ; 



JOHN Barclay's statement. 47 

and Phoenix:like, the noble structure which now oc- 
cupies its site sprung from its ashes. 

There are now no means of ktjowing who minis- 
tered to this Cluirch during the first tvvent}^ years of 
its existence ; all its records previous to the Revolution 
being either destroyed or lost. As this was the chief 
lovvn of the province, and the residence of the Gov- 
ernor and the principal state officers, and the place 
where the Assembly and the Supreme Court satj 
there can be no doubt but that public worship was 
here statedly maintained. The well-known charac- 
ter of the people of New-England, and of the Scotch, 
who formed so large a portion of the first inhabitants, 
gives to this inference nearly all the strength of re- 
corded testimony. 

In January, 1684, John Barclay thus writes from 
Elizabeth-Town : — " There be people here of several 
sorts of religion, but few very zealous: the people 
being mostly New-England men, do mostly incline 
to their way ; and in every town there is a Meeting- 
house where they worship publicly every week. 
They have no. public laws in this country for main- 
taining public teachers, but the towns that have them 
make way within themselves to maintain them ; we 
know none that has a settled preacher that follows 
no other employment save Newark." 

Nor is it known what was the form of government, 
whether Congregational or Presbyterian, here first 
adopted. As there was a strong mixture of Puritans, 
■and of the Scotch, it was just as likely to be the one 



48 HEV. JOHN HARRIMAN. 

as the oilier. It has, however, been so. long Presby- 
terian, that neither tradition nor the memory of man 
runneth back to the contrary. 

The first Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church 
of whom we have any record, was the Rev. John 
Harriman. He was a native of New-Haven, Con., 
where his father hvcd for many years a respected 
member of the churcli, and the keeper of a house of 
public entertainment. He was brought up under the 
eye of Mr. Davenport ; was fitted for college in the 
grammar school of his native town, and graduated 
at Cambridge in 1667. He probably entered the 
ministry soon after his graduation. We find him sup- 
plying the church in liis native town in 1676, where 
lie continues until 1682. He and a Mr. Taylor were 
rival candidates for the pulpit there, and each having 
iheir warm friends two parties were formed, known 
by the names of the two clergymen.* In 1682 Mr. 
Harriman retired from the conflict ; and very proba- 
bly came soon after to this town, and became Pastor 
of the First Church. He died in 1704. He erected 
the southern part of the house in INIeadow-strcet, 
which is now in the possession of his descendants of 
the sixth generation, and is the oldest building in our 
town. His fishes now repose beneath the present 
Church edifice. He was distinguished for his practi- 
cal wisdom ; was considered in New-Haven the most 
■able of the candidates that sought their pulpit, and 

» Bacon's Hist. Discourses. 



DIVISION INTO EAST AND WEST JERSEY, 



49 



aided very much by his counsel in transacting the 
business of tliis town. 

Mr. Harriman conitnenced his ministry here at a 
period of great confusion in the civil affairs of the 
province. Carteret, deposed by the Constituent As- 
sembly, has returned to England ; and James Berry 
his Deputy, and James Carteret the Governor of tlie 
Associates, are in daily conflict, Edmund Andross, 
then the violent and profligate Governor of New-Yoric, 
assumed authority over New-Jersey, and for party 
reasons was upheld by the Associates. In the name 
of the Duke of York he demanded, in 16S0, the sub- 
mission of the inhabitants; which being refused, lie 
threatened invasion ; and the people were on the 
verge of a civil war. 

In addition, a short time previous to tlie settlement 
of Mr. Harriman, the province was divided, owing 
piobably to some differences among the Lords Propri- 
etors. For one thousand pounds, Berkley sold his 
right to one half the State to John Fenwick. Fen- 
wick sells the half thus purchased to four Quakers, 
Billinge, Penn, Lawry and Lucas, making with Car- 
teret five proprietors. These, by what is called (he 
" duintipartile Deed,'' dated July 1, 1676, divided the 
province into East and West Jersey, George Carteret 
retaining East Jersey. He dies in 1679, leaving East 
Jersey to trustees, to 'be sold for the payment of his 
debts. From these trustees it is purchased in IGS2 
by twelve Quakers, headed by William Penn. To 
p.Uay the jealousies of the people, and to fortify them- 
5 



§0 PROPRIETARY RIGHTS SURRENDERED^ 

selves at Court, these unite with tiiem twelve others 
as partners, among whom was the Earl of Perthj 
after whom the point of land called by the Indians 
" Ambo," was called Pertli Amboy. 

In 1684, Charles II. dies, and is succeeded by his 
brother the Duke of York, as James II. As James 
the King, he had the least possible regard for the con- 
tiacts of James the Duke, and he immediately forms 
the plan of annulling all tlie deeds and charters of 
these colonies. Pretended con)plaints are entered 
against the people of the Jersies, and " quo warranto" 
writs are immediately issued. The proprietors remon- 
strate in vain. They have to do wiih a king and a 
Stuart, the most faithless and imperious race of men 
that ever held power. It is well for the world that 
the race has died out. By the sales and subdivisions 
of their rigiits the Proprietors became too numerous 
to manage the government with promptness, or satis- 
faction to the people. The people are divided. Con- 
troversy is rife, and is fomented by the crown. Thus 
embarrassed by their own number, and by internal 
dissensions, and by the position of the King, the Pro- 
prietors of East and West Jersey are induced to sur- 
render their gubernatorial power to the crown. This 
surrender is made to Queen Anne, in 1702; she 
immediately unites East and West Jersey, and sends 
out her kinsman. Lord Cornbury, as Governor. All 
this transpires during the ministry of Mr. Ilarriman, 
and, as far as is known, without materially interfer- 
ing with his ministerial labors, or with the increase of 



GOVEUNMENT OF THE CROWN. 51 

the province. It is apparent, however, frotn the an- 
nals of these times, that the people were frequently 
greatly excited. 

On the 17th of April, 17^2, the government of the 
Proprietors ceases in New-Jersey, and that of the 
crown, now worn by the last of the Stuarts, com- 
mences. A new Constiiulion for the Province is im- 
mediately formed by the British Mini^^try, and Corn- 
bury is sent over to administer it. Whilst it contains 
many wise regulations, we see in it the hand of the 
civil despot, and the high-cliurch tyrant; the one 
curtailing civil, and the other religious liberty. It de- 
prives tlie popular will of its energy, and gives the 
Governor a veto on all the laws of the Assembly. It 
commands due encouragement to the Royal African 
Company — formed for the purpose of prosecuting the 
accursed slave-trade ; that the Book of Common 
Prayer be read on Sundays and Holy-days, and the 
Sacraments to be administered after the Episcopal 
form : that all Ministers not Episcopally ordained be 
reported to the Lord Bishop of London ; and that, 
because of the inconvenience arising from the liberty 
of the press, no paper, book or pamphlet be printed 
without the license of the Governor.* With this new 
Constitution, Cornbury reaches New-Jersey in August, 
1703 ; and the province soon felt what it was to be 
governed by the tyrannical and contemptible tool of a 
tyrant. In their opposition to this profligate, the dif- 

* Learping and Spicer, 638-9. 



52 LORD CORNRURY. 

feient Assemblies convened by him, won for themselves 
unfading laurels. In 1709 he was deprived of his 
commission, after which he was impiHoned for debt 
in New-York. He lay in prison until Ite l)ccame a 
peer by the death of his father; when he returned to 
England and died in 1723. Presbyterians have good 
reason to remember him, as the persecnlor of their 
ministers, and the confiscator of their churcii proper- 
\y. The following circumstance, taken from Dr. 
Miller's Life of Dr. Rodgers, iUustrates his character : 
" The meanness, as well as the contemptible bigot- 
ry of this man, will appear from the following anec- 
dote, of uuifuestionabie authenticity. The Presbyte- 
rians of Janiaica, on Long Inland, had erected a com- 
modious edifice for the worship of God, and also pos- 
sessed a handsome parsonage-liouse and glebe, which 
they had enjoyed undisturbed for many years. A short 
time previous to the year 1702, when Lord Cornbury 
arrived, a few Episcopalians having settled in the 
town, began to view the Presbyterian churcli with a 
jealous eye; and at length carried their insolent vio- 
lence so far as to seize on the church, between the 
morning and afternoon service, and endeavored to hold 
it for the use of their own sect. After much contro- 
versy, it was recovered out of their hands, and re- 
stored to its proper owners. In the midst of this con- 
test, in the summer of 1702, a malignant fever break- 
ing out in the city of New-York, Loid Cornbuiy re- 
tired to Jamaica. The parsonage-house, in which 
the Rev. Mr. Hubbard, the minister of the church, 



REV. MR. MELYNE. 55 

lived, was the best in the town. His Lordship beg- 
ged the loan of it for the use of his family ; and Mr. 
Hubbard put himself to no small inconvenience to 
comply with his request. In return for this generous 
conduct, liis Lordship, on retiring from the house, 
perfidiously delivered it into the hands of the Episco- 
pal party, whose feelings and principles permitted them 
to leceive it." 

From all such men, in all future ages, may the 
good Lord deliver both the church and the state. 

We may form some estimate of the number of in- 
habitants residing here in 1703 and 1704, from the 
fact that about one hundred and thirty male inhabi- 
tants, and most of these no doubt heads of families, 
contributed to the support of Mr. Hairiman as 
pastor. 

Mr. Harriman was succeeded in 1704, the year of 
his death, by the Rev. Mr. Melyne. His ministry 
was of short conlinuar.ce. There is a tiadition in 
reference to him to this amount : being strongly sus- 
pected of intemperance, the choir, on a certain Sab- 
bath morning, sung a hymn as a voluntary, which 
he considered as designed to reprove and expose him. 
Whilst being sung he descended fiom the pulpit, and 
taking his wife he walked out of the church, and 
never again entered it. Where he came fiom, how 
long he remained here, and where he went from herC} 
are questions on which we cannot cast a ray of light 
In his time the (own contained about three hundred 
families. 

5* 



54 RLV. jaNATHAN DICKINSON. 

CHAPTER IV. 

The next Pastor of tlie First Presbytcrinn Church, 
was the Rev. Jonathan Dickinson; the iinpicss of 
whose character is yet virible on our town, and indeed 
on the whole of the Eastern section of New-Jersey. 
Tliis great and good man was born in Hatlield, Mass., 
April 22dj 1688, and was graduated in Yale College 
in 1706.* He was settled here in two or three years 
afterwards, and when he was about tw entyone years 
or age. Of this congregation and town, he was for 
nearly forty years the joy and the glo^3^ " He had a 
mind formed for inquiry ; and (o a keen penetration he 
united a disinlerested attachment to truth. With a 
natural turn for controversy he had a ha[)py govern- 
ment of his passions, and abhorred the perverse dis- 
putings so common to men of corrupt minds. The 
eagerness of contention did not extinguish in him the 
fervors of devotion and brotherly love." He advo- 
cated with great zeal the doctrines of grace, and 
adorned ihem by a holy life devoted to doing good. 
He was valiant for the truih. Unlike many at the 
present day, he never consulted his own ease or popu- 
larity at the expense of God's truth ; nor stood neutral 
to see which side would prevail, and then throw him- 
self on the popular current. Armed with the weapons 
of truth and love, he boldly resisted every attack on 

• Croon's Discourses, 296. 



REV. JONATHAN DICKINSON. 55 

the liulli and order of God's lioiise, and manfully de- 
fended from the assaulls of error all the great funda- 
mental doctrines of our most holy religion. And his 
published works praise liim in all the gates of Zion, 
and will transmit his name to all future generations. 
The most complete list of his published writings that 
we have seen is contained in Dr. Green's very valua- 
ble history of the College of New-Jersey. 

During liis ministry this congregation prospered 
greatly. It shared largely in the glorious revival with 
which God favored the country during the ministry 
of Whitefield, Edwards, Brainerd and the Tennents, 
who were all his contemporaries; and in 1740 there 
was a large addition made to the conimunicants of the 
church. It is a pleasant fact in our history that here 
the beloved Brainerd delighted to visit, and to com- 
mune with his biolher Jonathan. During the second 
visit of Whitefield to this country in 1740, he visited 
this place ; and at the very short notice of about two 
or three hours, preached at twelve o'clock to an audi- 
ence of seven hundred people. At the close of the 
service he took up a collection, probably for the Orphan 
Asylum, the largest in the list of collections for the 
year. From this fact we infer the great popularity of 
the preacher, that the town must have been considera- 
bly populous, and that it must have been a time of 
n)ore than ordinary attention to the subject of re- 
ligion. 

This parish is now a large and laborious one ; 
but in the days of Mr. Dickinson its boundaries 



56 REV. JONATHAN DICKINSON. 

were much iiioie exlcDsive tljan now. Il then 
included all of Railway, VVesttiekl, Conneclicut 
Farms and Springfield, and even a part of Chat- 
ham.* Then the people of Weslfiekl would walk 
here to worship God ; but those from Chatham were 
oftentimes in the habit of riding. Nor in those prime- 
val days were (he people much deterred by bad roads 
or biid weather. Hie Gospel w as precious to them, 
and they could encounter dithculties to hear il. 

Between the Elizabeth-Town Associates and the 
INew-Jersey Proprietors, the different parishes were 
not forgotten. I'he former set apait a town lot of 
the largest size for the minister, and the latter appro- 
priated two hundred acres for each parish. It is more 
than probable (hat the lot given by the Associates lay 
in that part of our town through which Race-street 
now runs; as Mr. Dickinson resided in a house which 
stood a few yards north of (he present residence of 
Capt. Charles L. Williamson. But what became of 
(he grant of the Proprietors, or whether it ever came 
into the possession of this congregation, there is ijo 
means of ascertaining. There is a tradition, that Mr. 

* The Church in WcstfieM was organized about 1730, and its 
first pastor was the Rev. Natuaniel Hubbell. Tlicir first place 
of worship was a log hut ; and the signal for public worship was 
the beating of an old drum. And as we find a law of the Dorough 
of Ehzabeth, passed Sept. 1742, appointing stray sheep to be 
sold on the green near the Mceting-liousesin Connecticut Farms, 
Westfield, Kahwny and Turkey, churches must have been col- 
lected and places of worship erected in all these places previous 
10 that date. 



REV, JONATHAN DICKINSON. 57 

Dickinson, on Iiis decease, gave to the Church seve- 
ral acres of land to be added to ll)e original town lot. 
The great cheapness of all the necessaries of life, 
together with the use of that lot and the parsonage, 
and their devoting a part of iheir time to other pur- 
suits than those directly minislerial, account for the 
small salaries given to the different pastors. Mr. 
Kettletas was paid but (wo pounds ten shillings per 
Sabbath. Mr. Caldwell was paid three pounds, one 
shilling and six pence per Sabbath. In 1776 his 
salary was raised to one hundred and eiglity pounds ; 
and he was paid by the week, and punctually every 
Monday morning. Mr. Linn was settled on a salary 
of three hundred pounds York currency, with the 
parsonage house and lands. But (hen all other things 
were in proportion. The Governor's salary in East 
Jersey was one hundred and fifty pounds; in West 
Jersey two hundred pounds; and, at one time, they 
were paid that in peas, and corn, and tobacco, at fix- 
ed prices.* Beef and venison weve a penny a pound ; 
corn was two shillings and six pence per bushel, bai- 
ley two shillings ■ and all other tilings in proportion. t 
Making due allowance for the changes that have ta- 
ken place, there is no doubt that pastors were much 
better paid then than now. 

A controversy which had existed for some lime in 
the Synod of Philadelj)hia, then representing the 
whole Presbyterian church in the provinces, resulted 

* Gordon, 57. t Smith, 180. 



58 REV. JONATHAN DICKINSON. 

in dividing llmt Synod into two parts in 1741 — the 
Synods of New-York and Philadelphia. From the 
time of their sepaiation each made strong exertions 
to educate youth for the ministry, with tlie mingled 
purpose of elevating the standard of nnnisterial edu- 
cation, and of strengthening their parly. New-Jersey 
went neaily inianiinonsly with theSynod of New York ; 
and as tlje Presbyterian Clmrcli was much stronger 
here than in New- York, it was determined if possible 
to establish a College, and to locate it in New-Jersey. 
Dickinson was the leader of his party in the old Sy- 
nod of Philadelphia ; and after the separatioji was by 
far the most able man in the Synod of New-York. 
He it was, no dunht, ihat gave being and tliape lo 
the deliberations that resulted in the creation of tiic 
College of New-Jersey. He had been for several years 
a very popular teacher of young men; and when the 
institution was resolved upon, every eye rested upon 
him as best qualified to lay its foundations, and to 
buperinlcnd its concerns. A charier for a college was 
bought, and <^ranled by Jolm Hamilton, who acted 
as Governor, (Iteing the oldest member of the Coun- 
cil,) between the death of Governor jMurris, in May, 
174(),. and the induction of Governor Delcher into the 
cliair of slate, in 1747. The college thus founded 
was commenced in this town, and Mr. Dickinson 
was chosen its first president. It is now in a flourish- 
ing stale, with an able and extended faculty, nume- 
rous Ijuiltlings, and students; but then, with the ex- 
ception of an usher, the president was the only teach- 



REV. JONATHAN DICKINSON. 5^ 

y.. The number of students was about i\venly,'\v ho 
boarded with the pres^^ident and other famihes in the 
town, Tlie Academy which stood where our Lecture 
Room now stands, and which was burned down dur- 
ing the war of the Revolution, contained the first 
fecitation room of the first classes ever attached to 
New-Jersey College. Although brought into exist- 
ence by the influence of Dickinson, he was spared 
to act as its president but one year, as he died October 
7th, 1747. The students were then removed to 
Newark, and placed under the government of the 
Rev. Aaron Burr, who was the second president of 
ihe College. In 1757, when about seventy in num- 
ber, they were removed to Princeton, where the first 
college edifice was erected, and which, in honor of 
William III. of England, Prince of Orange and Nas- 
s^au, the asserter of protestant liberty, was called 
Nassau Hall. 

The great and good Dickinson died in the sixtieth 
year of his age, although not full of years, yet full 
of honors. His must have been a life of great activi- 
ty and industry, when it is remembered that in addi- 
tion to his duties as a pastor, and teacher, and farmer, 
and the studies imposed by his numerous and ardent 
controversies, he was a practising physician, and ob- 
tained a considerable medical reputation. So devoted 
was he as a minister, so untiring were his ellbrts to do 
good, so discriminating and powerful was he as a 
preacher, so dignified and bland were his manners, 
so ardent was his attachment to the truth, and so 



CO REV. ELIIIU SPENCER. 

firm and cogent was lie in its advocacy, that Iiis me- 
mory is yet inestimably precious. It must iiave been 
a sad day in Elizabeih-Town when Mr. Dickinson, 
and Mr. Vaughan the Rector of (he Episcopal cluncli, 
who are said to have come to this place on the same 
day, and after laboring here forty years together were 
both corpses on the same day, the former having died 
but a few hours before tiie latter. 

Mr. Dickinson left behind him three daughters : 
one of them married a Mr. Sargeant, of Princeton, of 
whom the Hon. John Sargeant, of Pliiladclphia, is a 
descendant. Another married the Rev. Caleb Smith, 
pastor of the church in Newark Mountains, now called 
Orange, of whom the fomily of Greens of Lawrence- 
ville are descendants, one of whom, II. W. Green of 
Trenton, is one of tiie ornaments of the New-Jersey 
bar. And the other became the wife of a Mr. John 
Cooper. The remains of this venerated man sleep in 
our grave-yard, and hallowed be the spot of their re- 
pose, until they awake to newness. of life.* 

The successor of Mr. Dickinson, as pastor of this 
church, was the Rev. Elihu Spencer. D. D, From 
bis venerable and respected daughter, Mrs. Lydia Bid- 
die, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, we learn the following 
facts respecting him. Dr. Spencer, tlie fourth son of 
Isaac and Mary Spencer, was born at East Haddam, 
Connecticut, Feb. 12, 1721. He entered Yale Col- 
lege in 1742, where he graduated in 174G. He was* 

* Dr. Green's Notes on New- Jersey College, and on the Presi- 
"dent Dickinson. 



REV. ELIHU SPENCER. 61 

ordained to tlie work of the ministry in the city of Bos- 
ton, in Sept. 1748 ; and on Wednesday, Feb. 7, 1750j 
he was installed pastor in this town. In October foK 
lowing, he was married to Miss Joanna Eaton, of 
Shrewsbury. He continued a faithful and useful pas- 
tor here until 1756, when he removed to Trenton, 
and became the pastor of the church at that place; 
where he died in 1784, in the 64th year of his age. 
The following is the inscriplion on the stone that 
marks his grave : 

'•' Beneath this stone lies the body of the Rev. Elihu 
Spencer, D. D., pastor of the Presbyterian church of 
Trenton, and one of the Trustees of the College of 
New-Jersey : who departed this life on the 27th of 
December, 1784, in the 64th year of his age. Pos^ 
sessed of fine genius, of great vivacity, of eminent and 
active piety, his merits as a minister and a man, stand 
above the reach of flattery. Having long edified the 
church by his talents and example, and finished his 
course sviih joy, he fell asleep full of faith, and waiting 
for the hope of all saints." 

It was during the ministry of Dr. Spencer, that the 
First Church received its act of incorporation. Jona- 
than Belcher became Governor of this province in 
1747, and became a resident of this town, and a mem- 
ber of that church. A charter was now sought and 
granted by him, ?md bears date August 22, 1753. 
The Trustees named in the Charter, and the first that 
exercised corporate powers in this ancient congrega- 
tion, are, Stephen Crane, Cornelius Hetfield, Jona- 
6 



62 FIRST CHURCH CHARTER, 

than Dayton, Isaac Woodruff, Matthias Baldwin, 
Moses Ogden and Benjamin Winans. Tlie charter 
states, that at the time it was granted, " this is a 
large and considerable congregation." Tt authorises 
the Trustees to build an Alms-house for the support 
of the poor, and to build School-houses for the educa- 
tion of the children of the town. The following is 
the document itself: 

"George the Second, b}^ the grace of God of 
Great Britain, France and Ireland King, Defender of 
the Faith : To all to whom these presents shall 
come, greeting. Whereas the advancement of true 
religion and virtue is absolutely necessary for the pro- 
motion of peace, order and prosperity of the state ; 
and whereas it is the duty of all Christian Princes 
and Governors by tiie law of God, to do all they can 
for the encouragement tiiereof; and whereas sundry 
of our loving subjects of the Presbyterian persuasion, 
inhabitants of and about the Borough of Eliza- 
beth, within our Colony of New-Jersey, by their 
humble petition presented to our trusty and well be- 
loved Jonathan Belcher, Esq,, oin- Captain General 
and Commandsr-in Chief of our t*rovince of TS^ew- 
Jersey, and Vice-Admiral in the same, shewing that 
the petitioners and others of the same persuasion, in- 
habitants in and about the Borough df Elizabeth 
aforesaid, do make up a very large and considera- 
ble congregation : That the most advantageous sup- 
port of religion among them necessarily requires that 



FUIST CHURCH CHARTER, 63 

GOine persons should be incorporated as Trustees for 
the connnunity, (hat they may take grants of lands and 
chattels, thereby to enable the petitioners to erect and re- 
pair public buildings for the worship of God and the 
use of the ministry, and school-houses and alms-houses, 
and suitably to support the ministry and the poor of their 
church, and to do and perform olher acts of piety and 
charity ; and that the same Trustees may have power 
to let and grant the saine under a public seal, for the 
uses aforesaid ; and that the san)e Trustees may 
plead and be impleaded in any suit touching the 
premises, and have perpetual succession : That also, 
the known loyalty of the petitioners, and the Presby- 
terians in general to us, their firm atfection to our 
person and government, and the Protestant succes- 
sion in our royal house, gave the petitioners hopes of 
all reasonable indulgence and ftivor, within the same 
colony where the religious rights of mankind are so 
happily preserved, and where our equal grace and 
bounty to all our protestant faithful subjects, however 
differing in opinion about lesser matters, has hitherto 
been so sensibly felt and enjoyed. The said petition- 
ers, therefore, most humbly prayed our grant of an 
incorporation to the petitioners, by the name of the 
Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church in Eliza- 
beth-Tovviij with all such powers, capacities and pri- 
vileges as might be effectual in law, for the purposes 
aforesaid ; and tliat Stephen Crane, Cornelius Het- 
field, Jonathan Dayton, Isaac Woodruff, Matthias 
Baldwin, Mosfes Ogden and Benjamin Winans, might 



64 FIRST CHURCH CHARTER. 

be the first Trustees, (which petition, signed wiih the 
names of a great number of our faithful and loving 
subjects, inhabitants in and about the said town,) we 
being willing to grant : Know ye, that we, of our 
especial- grace, certain knowledge and mere motion, 
have willed and ordained, constituted, given and 
granted, and for us, our heirs and successors, by these 
presents, do will, oidain, coiisliiute, give and granl 
that Stephen Crune, Cornelius Hei field, Jonaihai) 
Dayton, Isaac Woodruff, Matthias Baldwin, Moses 
Ogden and Benjamin Winans, from henceforth, and 
their successors forever hereafter, shall be and remain 
one body politic and corporate, in deed, fact and 
name, by the name of the Trustees of the First 
Presbyteriao Church in Elizabelh-Town ; and them 
and their successors, by the name of the Trustees of the 
First Presbyterian Chinch in Elizabelh-Town, one 
body corporate and politic in deed, fact and name, really 
and fully, we do for us, our heirs and successors, erect, 
make, ordain, constitute, declare and create, by these 
presents, and by that name the}^ shall and may have 
perpetual succession ; and also, that they and their 
successors by the name of the Trustees of the First 
Presbyterian Church in F'lizabcth-Town, be, and 
forever hereafter shall be, persons able in law to pur- 
chase^ takfe, hold, receive and enjoy any messuages, 
houses, buildings, lands, tenements, rents, possessions 
and other hereditaments and real estate, in fee sin>ple 
or otherwise, so as the yearly clear value of the same 
does not exceed the sum of five hundred pounds sterling, 



FIRST CHURCH CHARTER. 65 

the Statute of Moilmuin or any other law to llie con- 
trary iioiwilhstaiiding ; and also, goods, chattels, and 
all other things of what kind or quality soever. And 
also, that they and their successors, by the name of 
the Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church in 
Elizabeth-Town, shall and may give, grant and de- 
mise, assign, sell, or otherwise dispose of, all or any of 
their messuages, houses, lands, tenements, rents, pos- 
sessions and other hereditaments and real estate, and 
all their goods, chattels and other things aforesaid, as 
to them shall seem meet. And also, that they and 
their successors, by the name of the Trustees of the 
First Presbyterian Church in Elizabeth-Town, be 
and for ever hereafter shall be, persons able in law and 
capable to sue and be sued, implead or be impleaded, 
answer or be answered, defend or be defended, in all 
courts of judicature whatsoever. And also, that the 
said Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church in 
Elizabeth-Town for the time being, and their suc- 
cessors, shall and may for ever hereafter, have and use 
a common seal, with such device or devices as they 
shall think proper, for sealing all and singular deeds, 
grants, conveyances, contracts, bonds, articles of agree- 
ment, assignments, powers, authorities, and all and 
singular their affairs and things touching or concern- 
ing the said corporation ; and also, that the said 
Trustees and their successors for ever may, as oft as 
they see fit, break, change and new make the same 
or any other their common seal. And furtiier, we 
do of our especial grace, certain knowledge and uiei.a 
6* 



66 FIRST CHURCH CHARTER. 

motion, for us, our lieiis and successors, by these pre- 
sents, will, ordain, constitute, give and grant, that 
upon any vacancy among the Trustees of the said 
First Presbyterian Cliurch in EHzabeth-Townj by 
death, rennoval or other incapacity whatsoever, that 
the Minister or Ministers, Eiders and Deacons for the 
time being, of the said First Presbyterian Church in 
Elizabeth-Town, shall and may meet together at 
Elizabeth-Town aforesaid, and then and there elexi 
and choose such person or persons out of the congre- 
gation of the said church as they think proper, to supply 
the vacancy of such Trustee or Trustees, caused by 
death, removal or other incapacity as aforesaid. And 
also, that at any and at all times whatsoever, when 
the said Minister or Ministers, Elders and Deacons of 
the church aforesaid, or the majority of them for the 
time being, shall and do judge it proper and for the 
benefit of the said corporation, that any Trustee or 
Trusteiss should be removed or displaced from his or 
their office of Trustee, that then and in such case, the 
said Minister or Ministers, Elders and Deacons of the 
said church, or the majority of them for the time be- 
ing, shall and may meet together at Elizabeth-Town 
aforesaid, and are hereby sufTicienily authorised then 
and there to displace and remove from the office of 
Trustee, any such Trustee or Trustees, and in their 
room and stead to elect and choose out of the congre- 
gation of said church, any person or persons, to sup- 
ply the place or places of such Trustee or Trustees so 
jjisplaced and removed : Provided, always, that tho 



FIRST CHURCH CHARTER. 67 

number of the said Trustees exceed not seven, and 
every Trustee so elected and appointed aforesaid, shall 
by virtue of these presents, and of such election and 
appointment, be vested with all the powers and pri- 
vileges which any of the other Trustees has or has 
had. And we do further will and ordain, give and 
grant, that the Trustees of the said First Presbyterian 
Church in Elizabeth-Town, and their successors for 
the time being, shall from time to lime have power to 
choose their President out of the Trustees for the time 
being, who shall have the custody of the public seal 
of the said corporation, and all the books, charters, 
deeds and writings any ways relating to the said cor- 
poration ; and shall have power from time to time, 
and at all limes hereafter, as occasion shall lequlre, to 
call a meeting of the said Trustees at Elizabeth- 
Town aforesaid, for the execution of all or of any of 
the powers hereby given and granted. And in case 
of sickness, absence or death of the President, all the 
powers by these presents granted to the President, 
shall be and remain in the eldest Trustee upon record, 
until the recovery or return of the President, or until 
a new President be chosen as aforesaid. And we do 
further will and ordain, give and grant, that all and 
every act and order of five of the said Trustees, but 
not of any lesser number, consented and agreed to at 
such meeting of the Trustees aforesaid, shall be good, 
valid and efifectual to all intents and purposes, as if the 
whole number of the Trustees had consented and 
agreed thereto. And we do further will and ordain, thai 



OO FIRST CHURCH CHARTER. 

all llie acts of the said Trustees, s^liail fiom time to time 
be fairly entered in a book or books, to be kept for that 
purpose by the President of the Trustees for the 
time being, which book or books, togetlier with the 
seal of the said corporation, and all (he charters, deeds, 
and writings whatsoever, belonging any ways to the 
said corporation, shall be delivered over by the foinier 
President to the President of the said Trustees newly 
elected, for the lime being, as such President shall 
hereafter from time to time successively be chosen. 
And lastly, we do of our especial grace, certain know- 
ledge and mere motion, for us, our heirs and succes- 
sors, b}^ these presents, give and grant unto the said 
Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church in Eliza- 
beth-Town, and their successors for ever, that these 
our Letters Patent, or the enrolment thereof, shall be 
good and effectual in the law, to all intents and pur- 
poses, against us, our heirs and successors, without 
any other license, grant or confirmation from us, our 
heirs and successors hereafter, by the said Trustees of 
the First Presbyterian Churcli in Elizabelh-Town, 
to be had or obtained, notwithstanding the not reciting 
or mis-reciting, or not naming or mis-naming, of the 
aforesaid offices, franchises, privileges, immunities, or 
other the premises, or any of them, notwitlistanding 
a writ of ad quod damnum hath not issued forth to 
enquire of the premises, or any of them, before the en- 
sealing hereof, any statute, act, ordinance or provi- 
sion, or any other matter or thing, to the contrary 
Dotwithstanding: To iiave, hold and enjoy all and. 




FIRST CHURCH CHARTER. 69 

singular the privileges, advantnges, liberties, immuni- 
ties, and all other (he premises herein and hereby 
granted and given, or which are meant, mentioned or 
intended to be herein given and granted, unto them 
the said Trustees of the First Presbyterian Church in 
Elizabeth-Town, and to their successors for ever. 

"In testimony whereof, we have caused these our 
Letters to be made Patent, and the Great Seal of our 
said Province of New Jersey to be here- 
unto affixed. Witness our trusty and 
well beloved " Jonathan Belcher, Esq., 
Governor and Commander-in-Chief of 
our said Piovince of New-Jersey, this 
twenty-fifth day of August, in the twenty-seventh 
year of our reign, and in the year of our Lord one 
thousand seven hundred fifty and three." 

" I have perused and examined the within Letters 
Patent, and find nothing therein contained but what 
is consistent with the honor and interest of the crown. 

"Aug. 18, 1753. Jo. Warrell, Att. Gen."' 

"August 22d, 1753. The within Charter of Incor- 
poration being read in Council, the same was appro- 
ved of, and his Excellency the Governor was advised 
to grant the same. Cha. Read, Sec'y." 

" Let the Great Seal of the Province of New-Jersey 
be hereunto affixed. J. Belcher. 

" To the Secretary of the Province 
of New-Jersey." 



70 GOVERNOR BELCHER. 

The nameofBELCHERj associated withlhe corporate 
existence of this congregation, and the patron of Nas- 
sau Hall, deserves a passing notice. " The righteous 
shall he had in everlasting reniemhrance." He was 
horn in Cambridge, Mass., in 1681, and was gradua- 
ted in Harvard College, in 1699 : (previous to which 
he became a pious man.) During an absence of tix 
5'ears in Europe, he stored his mind with the trea- 
sures of knowledge, and formed an acquaintance at 
Court, which laid the foundation of his future honors. 
On his return from foreign travel, he become a mer- 
chant in Boston, where he acquired both reputation 
and fortune. After serving in the Assembly and 
Council of his native stale, he was sent in 1722 to 
England, as the Agent of Massachusetts Bay. On 
the death of Governor Burnet, (the son of the worthy 
Bishop of that name,) he was made, in 1730, Gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts and New-Hampshire. Be- 
cause of a contention between him and the people, 
transmitted to him by his predecessor, he was remov- 
ed from office. He immediately repaired to Court, 
where he triumphantly vindicated himself from the 
charges of his enetiiies ; and on the death of Gov- 
ernor Hamilton, he was appointed Governor of New- 
Jersey, where he arrived in 1747. On entering on 
his new office, he found things in great confusion, but 
by firm and judicious measines he reduced them to 
order. With great popularity, and with the greatest 
justice and moderation, he governed this province for 
ten years. He united to a commanding person, and 



REV. ABRAHAM KETTLETAS. 71 

a richly cultivated mind, uncommon gracefulness and 
dignity of manners, unshaken integrity, and the most 
serious and fervent piety. He was the devoted friend 
of Whitefield. He resided in Jersey-street, in the 
house now occupied by Dr. Davis, where he died of 
paralysis, in August, 1757, in the 76th year of his 
age. His remains, after lying some time in the 
grave-yard of the First Church, were removed for bu- 
rial, to Cambridge, his native town. 



CHAPTER V. 



The successor of Dr. Spencer, as the pastor of the 
First Presbyterian Church, was the Rev. Abraham 
Kettletas, v^'ho was installed Sept. 14, 1757. He 
remained here but two or three years. The last time 
his name appears on the Treasurer's account, is on 
the 29th of Sept. 1760. The entry stands thus : 
" To cash paid Mr. Kettletas, in full, twenty-six 
pounds, seven shillings and six pence." Whether dis- 
missed at this time, or before, we cannot ascertain. 

Mr. Kettletas was born in the city of New- York, in 
1733, and graduated in Yale College. His first set- 
tlement as a minister, was probably in this town, and 
after his removal he preached for about two years in 
the Refortned Dutch Church in Jamaica; and after- 
vvards in other places on Long-Island. Like most, if 



72 REV. ABRAHAM KETTLETAS. 

not all of the Presbyterian clergymen of his age, he 
was a very decided Whig during the war of the Rev- 
olution, and devoted, perhaps, too much of his time to 
politics. Indeed, he became a political writer of no 
small note, and was the author of some very able po- 
litical tracts. He was a man of varied learning, and 
has left some manuscript sermons, written in French 
and in Dutch. He died in Jamaica, Sept. 30, 1798, 
and his ashes repose in the grave-yard of the Presby- 
terian Church in that place. The following is his 
epitaph : 

" Sacred to the memory of the Rev. A!)rnham Ket- 
tletas, Obt. 30th Sept. 1798, ^E. 65 years, 9 mos. and 
4 days. He possessed unusual talents, that were im- 
proved by profound erudition, and a heart firmly at- 
trxhed to the interests of his country. His mind was 
early in)pres3ed with a sense of religion, which full}' 
manifested itself in the choice of tlie sacred ot!ice, in 
which he shone as the able and faithful divine. It 
may not pcriiaps be unworthy of record in (his in- 
scription, that he frequently ofiiciated in three difi'erent 
languages, having preached in the Dutch and French 
Churches in his native city of New-York. 

Rest from tliy labors now thy work is o'er ; 

Since Deatk is vanquished, now free grace adore ; 

A crown of glory sure awaits the just, 

Who served their God, and in their Saviour trust." 

The Rev. James Caldwell, of revolutionary and 
patriotic memory, whose tragical end gives to his his- 
^tory all the interest of romance, was the successor of 



REV. JAMES CALDWELL. 73 

Mr. Keltletas. Between the removal of the one and 
the settlement of the other, the pulpit was supplied by 
many individuals, no doubt, as candidates for settle- 
ment. As they were in the habit of paying the 
preacher every Monday morning, the Treasurer's ac- 
count is the only testimony we have as to who they 
were. Mr. Kilpatriclc, Mr. Treet, Mr. Carmichael, 
Mr. Horton, who afterwards settled at Bottle-Hill, Mr. 
Elmore, Mr. WoodruflT, Mr. Parkhnrst, Mr. Green, af- 
terwards or at that time scltied in Hanover, and (lie 
father of the venerable Dr. Green, Mr. More, Mr. 
Pierson, Mr. McWhorter, Mr. Halsey, and a Mr. Jones 
are among the number. But Mr. Caldwell was select- 
ed from them all, and was installed in December, 1 7(31 j 
although he preached here several Sabbaths between 
August, 17G0, and the date of his settlement. 

We learn from some of the descendants of this die- 
linguished man, of whom there are many, that his 
family was of French origin. Driven from their 
country b}'^ the fierce persecution against the Hugue- 
nots, they went over to Scotland. In the reign of 
James i. a branch of the family went over to Ireland 
and settled in the county of Antrim. From this 
branch John Caldwell was descended, who emigrated 
to this countr)'^, biinging with him besides his wife 
and children, four single sisters. He first seiiled ia 
Lancaster county, Pena., but soon removed to a set- 
tlement called Cub Greek, in what is now called Char- 
lotte county, Virginia. There James was born, April, 
1734j the youngest of seven children. He was sent 
7 



74 UEV. JAMES CALDWELL. 

to Princeton College, where he graduated in 1759. In 
about a year afterwards he was Ucensed to preach the 
gospel ; and whilst the dew of his youth was yet upon 
him he entered upon the chatge of this then large 
congregation. Soon after his settlement he was mar- 
ried, March 14, 1763, to Miss Hannah Ogden, of 
Newark, who was in every respect a help meet for 
him, and whose cheerful piety and unshaken fortitude 
sustained and comforted him amid the dark and try- 
ing scenes through wliich he was called to pass. 

Shortly after the settleniont of Mr. Caldwell here, 
those dilierences between the colonies and Great Bri- 
tain commenced which resulted in the war of the Rev- 
olution, and subsequently in the Independence of the 
United Slates. Descended from the Huguenots, he 
early learned the story of their wrongs, and may be 
said to have inherited a feeling of opposition to tyranny 
and tyrants. Possessing warm feelings, and fine ge- 
nius, and great muscular energy, he entered with all 
his heart into the controversy. He acted as the chap- 
lain of those portions of the American army that suc- 
cessively occupied New-Jersey, accompanied the Jersey 
Brigade to the nortliern lines, and is said to have held 
the station of commissary for some time. He was 
high in the confidence of Washington, with whom he 
was on the most intimate terms of friendship ; and in 
limes of gloom and despondency, by his eloquent and 
patriotic appeals, contributed much to excite and sus- 
tain the drooping spirits of officers and soldiers. . And 
perhaps no one man in this part of the State of New- 



REV. JAMES CALDWELL. 75 

Jersey contiiliLited so much to give tlirection and ener- 
gy to the movements of our citizens. His popularity 
willi the soldiers and people was unbounded, and his 
practical wisdom was held in the highest estimation. 

But the very things (hat made him popular with 
the friends of his country, made him equally unpopu- 
lar with its enemies. To avoid the danger to which 
he was constantly exposed from the tories, and the 
enemy then in tiie possession of Staten Island and 
New-York, he was compelled to remove his residence 
from this place to Connecticut Farms, where he resi- 
ded until the day of his murder. 

He was sustained in his political action by his con- 
gregation with scarcely a single exception. The 
church in which he preached was cheerfully yielded 
as a hospital for sick, and disabled, and wounded sol- 
diers, as some of the aged ones yet among us testify. 
It was its bell that sounded (hrough the town the notes 
of alarm on the approach of the foe ; its floor was not 
unfrequently the lied of (he weary soldier, and the 
scats of its pews the table from whicli he eat his scanty 
meal. Its worshippers on the Sabbath were not un- 
frequently compelled to stand through the service 
because of the greasiness of their seats, and the frag- 
ments of bread and meat by which they were covered. 
In vengeance on the pastor and the peop,Ie, this church 
was fired on the 25tli of January, 1780, by a refugee 
called Cornelius Hetfield. Onthe25ih of the follow- 
ing June, whilst General Knyphausen was on his way 
to Springfieldj Mrs. Caldwell was shot at Connecticut 



76 REV. JAMES CALDWELL. 

Farms by a refugee, through tiie window of a room 
to wliich she had reliied with her children for safely 
and prayer ; two balls passing through her body. Her 
Ufeless corpse was drawn from the building and laid 
in the open street, when it was fired ; and soon all the 
surrounding buildings were in ashes. And on the 
24th of November, 1781, Mr. Caldwell himself was 
shot at Elizabeth-Town Point, whither he had gone 
for a young lady who had come under the protection 
of a fiag of truce from New-Yoilc. 'IMie ball pierced 
his heart, and he expired in a moment. His corpse 
-was laid in the body of a wagon covered with straw, 
and was carried to the the house of Mrs. Noel, his 
unwavering friend, whence it was buried. Dr. Mc- 
Whorter, of Newark, preached his funeral sermon 
from Ecclesiastes, eighth chapter and eighth verse. 
The remains of himself and wife He together in our 
grave yard. He died in the 49lh year of his age, 
leaving a name as dear to the state as it is to the 
ciiurch of Jesus Christ. Tlius in less than two years 
this congregation was bereft of its church, and next 
of the inestimable wife of their pastor, and" next of 
that pastor himself And as a proof of (he estimate 
in which he was held, his name was given to one of 
the townships of this county. 

The funeral of Mr. Caldwell was one of the most 
solemn scenes that this (own has ever m itncssed. He 
was shot on Satmday afternoon, and many of the 
peo|)}e were ignorant of the tragical deed until they 
came to church on the Sabbath ; and instead of sitting 



REV. JAMES CALDWELL. 77 

with delight under liis instructions, there was a loud 
cry of wailing over his melancholy end. There was 
a vast concourse assembled to convey him to his tomb 
on the following Tuesday. After the rehgious servi- 
ces were ended, the corpse was placed on the large 
stone before the door of the house of Mrs. Noel, now 
the residence of Miss Spalding, where all could take 
a last view of the remains of their murdered pastor. 
After all had taken their last look, and before the cof- 
fin was closed, Dr. Bcudinot came forward, leading 
nine orphan children, and placing them around the 
bier of tlieir parent, made an address of surpassing 
pathos to the multitude in their behalf. It was an 
hour of deep and powerful emotion ; and the proces- 
sion slowly moved to the grave, weeping as they went. 
And as they lifted their streaming eyes to heaven, they 
besought the blessing of God upon the orphan group ; 
and his kind interposition to crown their efforts 
against their oppressors with success. 

So vivid are the recollections of many yet amongst 
us of this devoted patriot and pastor, that we can de- 
scribe him almost to the life. He was of middling 
size, and strongly framed. His countenance had a 
pensive placid cast ; but when excited was exceedingly 
expressive of resolution and energy. His voice was 
sweet and pleasant, but at the same time so strong 
that he could make himself heard above the notes of 
the drum and fife. As a preacher he was uncom- 
monly eloquent and pathetic, rarely preaching without 
weeping himself, and at times would melt his whola 
7* 



TS REV. JAMES CALDWELL. 

audience into tears. He was one of the most active 
of men, and seemed never wearied by any amount of 
bodily or mental labor. Feelings of the most fervent 
piety and of the most glowing patriotism possessed 
his bosom at the same time, without the one interfe- 
ring with the other. He was one day preaching to 
the battalion, the next marching with (hem to battle, 
and if defeated assisting to conduct their retreat, and 
the next administering the consolations of the gospel 
to some dying parishioner. His people were most 
ardently attached to liim, and the army adored him. 
His shed blood is mingled wiih our soil, and his ashes 
repose in our cemetery. Let his name be had in ever- 
lasting remembrance. 

He was shot by a man called Morgan, who was 
tried and found guilty of murder. It is said that 
it was proved on his trial that he was bribed by Brit- 
ish gold to commit the murderous deed. He was 
hung, giving signs of the most obdurate villainy. The 
day of his execution was intensely cold, and his last 
words were, addressing with an oath the executioner, 
"do your duly and don't keep me here suffering in 
the cold."' The place of his execution is about half a 
mile north of the Weslficld church, and is called Mor- 
gan's Hill to this day. 

Mr. Caldwell left behind him nine orphan children, 
with but very little provision to sustain or educate 
them. The Lord raised up friends to protect them, 
and they all lived not only to become members of the 
church of Jesus Christ, but to occupy places of distin- 
guished usefulness. 



REV. JAMES CALDWELL. 7^ 

Margaret, the oldest child, became the wife of Mr. 
Isaac Can field, of Morristown. 

Hannah became the wife of Mr. James R. Smith, 
for many years a distinguished merchant of New- 
York. 

John Edwards, was taken by Lafayette to France, 
where he was educated ; for many 3'^ears he was the 
foremost in the ranks of the benevolent of the city of 
New-York ; was the editor of one of the 'first religious 
periodicals of the country, and did as much as any 
other man in laying the foundation of the American 
Bible Society. 

James B. was for many years a Judge of the courts 
of Gloucester county, and died in Woodbuiy. 

Esther became the wife of the late Rev. Dr. Finley 
of Baskenridge, afterwards the President of Athens 
College in Georgia, whom she yet survives. 

Josiah F. is now a citizen of Washington, D. C, 
and an officer in the Post Office department. 

Elias B. was for some years the Clerk of the Su- 
preme Court, and because of his noble efforts in the 
cause of Colonization, one of the towns in Liberia is 
called Caldwell in honor of him. 

Sarah, became the wife of the Rev. John S. Vre- 
dcnburg, for many years pastor of the Dutch Reform- 
ed Church in Somcrville. 

Maria, married Robert S. Robertson, a merchant of 
New-York, who with her husband yet survive. This 
is the child which lay in the arms of her mother when 
she was shot. 






80 RESISTANCE TO IMPOST LAWS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

The deep injustice of British legislation, in refer- 
ence to the Ameiican colonies, was very early felt in 
New-Jersey ; and perhaps, in no part of the colonies 
was there a more inteUigent or determined opposition 
to taxation and impost than in Ehzabeth-Town. 
Massachusetts led the way in resisting the impost 
laws of the crown, and New-.Tersey very promptly 
followed. And when the merchants of Newport and 
New-York would import goods under the regulations 
of the Parliament, meetings were held in Elizabeth- 
Town in June and July 1770, in which resolutions 
were passed approving the non-importation agree- 
ments that had been adopted inother places, and declar- 
ing all that opposed them the enemies of their country, 
and deserving to be treated accordingly.* The lan- 
guage of the resolutions at these meetings, shew the 
heat of those hidden fires, which, in subsequent years, 
burst forth into an unquenchable flame. 

It would seem as if the people of Essex county 
were prepared, by a course of preceding events, for 
the sacrifices which they made, for the suffering they 
endured, and for the valor which they displayed du- 
ring the war of the Revolution. During the whole 
lime that Governor Belcher held the reigns of govern- 
ment, the greater part of East- Jersey was in a state of 

* Gordon, 147. 



EXCITEMENT IN EAST JERSEY. 



81 



intense excitement, owing to clispntes between the 
grantees of Carteret and those holding lands under 
the Tndiati title. Robert Hunter Morris, and Janies 
Alexander,* men high in civil station, and large pro- 
prietors under the proprietory title, sued at law those 
holding under the Indian title, for rent.t The civil 
tribunals decided in their favor; when those holding 
under (he Indian title, iuunediatcly formed themselves 
into associations^; and they were enabled, by their num- 
bers, union and boldness, to bid defiance to the laws, 
and to hold possession of their lands. In 1745, these 
associations broke open the jail of Essex county and 
set the prisoners at liberty, who were there confined 
on the suits of Morris and Alexander. And during 
several consecutive years, the will of these associators 
was the law of the country, and the arm of the 
government was completely paralysed. The Gov- 
ernor and Iiis Council strove to inflict the severest 
penalty of the law upon the rebels, but the House of 
Assembly refused assent, and seemed rather disposed 
to palliate than to punish their crime. We need not 
wonder that men, trained amid conflicts like thes&; 
who, when the law would give them no redress, took 
that ledress into their own hands, passed the resolu- 
tions of June and July 1770, severely punished the im- 
porters of goods contrary to the non-importation agree- 
ment ; were prepared to peril all, when the great ques- 



* The law tutor of Governor Livingston, and father of Lord 
Stirling. 

t Gordon, 109, 



82 GOVERNOR LIVINGSTON. 

tion between the crown and the people was hbcity or 
slavery. 

And there were in this community, men swayed 
and directed by other motives than those which in- 
fluenced the associators in their resistance to the chums 
of the proprietors. Tn their view, the conflict between 
the Crown and tlie Colonies involved principles dear to 
them as life, and which, if lamely surrendered, reduced 
them from being the citizens and subjects, to be the 
slaves of Great Britain. Their minds comprehended 
the bearing of these principles, and their previous 
training fitted them, at whatever sacrifice, to resist 
them. 

Aniong these, William Livingston stood con- 
spicuous — a lineal descendant of the Rev. John Li- 
vingstone of Scotland, the fame of whose wonderful 
sermon at the Kiifc of Shotis, is yet abroad in the 
church. He was born in the city of Albany, in No- 
vember. 1723. In 1741 lie was graduated at Yale 
College, and soon after, he entered the office of James 
Alexander, in the city of New-York, as a student of 
law. In 1748 he is admitted to the bar as attorney, 
and gradually rises to great distinction in his profes- 
pion. He enters with great spirit into the controver- 
sies of the day, and soon becomes the leading writer, 
both in defence of popular rights, and in opposition to 
what was then termed the "American Episcopate." 
His occasional pieces on these subjects are numerous 
c^nd valuable, and many of them were re-printed and 



GOVERNOR LIVINGSTON. 83 

circulated in England, with no little efTect even upon 
the deliberations of the Cabinet. After accumulating 
a considerable fortune in the profession of the law, he 
retired to Elizabeth-Town in 1772, where, in that and 
the subsequent year he erected the house which is yet 
called by his name, and in which he resided until his 
death. We find him soon elected a member of a 
Committee of Coriespondence, to meet other commit- 
tees for the purpose of choosing delegates to the Con- 
tinental Congress ; and soon a member of that Con- 
gress which met in Philadelphia, in September, 1774. 
He was re-elected to the same body in 1775, in which 
he served on several of its most important committees. 
In 1776 he was elected Brigadier-General, and as 
such, took the command of the New Jersey militia, 
and fixed his camp at Elizabeth-Town Point, where 
Elias Boudinot was his aid-de-camp. 

The first Legislature of New- Jersey under the 
Republican Constitution, met in Princeton in August, 
1776, and by it William Livingston was elected Gov- 
ernor of New- Jersey, the first Governor of the State 
after casting off its colonial dependence. And to this 
office he was elected by the successive legislatures for 
fourteen consecutive years, until his death, which took 
place on Sunday, July 25, 1790. His remains were 
interred at Elizabeth-Town with those of his wife, 
and in the course of the following winter were removed 
to the vault of iheir son Brockholst, in New-York. 

Governor Livingston was a" profound lawyer, an 
incorruptible patriot, an able writer, and an humble 



84 GEN. ELIAS DAYTON. 

christian. Professing principle?, and possessing habits 
which unfitted him to be, and whicli foibid liini to aim 
to be, the demagogue, he was j^et peibai)s the most 
popular governor that ever filled the chair of state in 
New-Jersey. Nor must it be forgotten that he was 
the patron and friend of Alexander Hamilton. Ham- 
ilton came to this country from the SVest Indies, !)ring- 
ing a letter to Livingston from the Rev. Hugh Knox, 
a Presbyterian minister in St. Croix. Livingston sent 
him to school to Mr. Francis Barber, then a di^^lin- 
guished teacher of this town. At the commencement 
of hostilities, both teacher and pupil enlcred the army ; 
the teacher reached the rank of colonel ; the scholar's 
«ame and fame are known to the civilized world. 

Another of these men, raised up and fiited to meet 
the exigencies of the great occasion, was IjLtas Day- 
ton. His father, Jonathan, came to Elizabeth-Town 
at an early jieriod of its history, from East Hampton, 
Long Island, and held here a commission as captain 
of militia under Governor Morris. His son Elias was 
born here in 1735. On reaching manhood he fol- 
lowed a mechanical profession until the breaking out 
of the French w^ar, when he joined the British army 
which reduced Canada. Subsequently he was in 
command of a company of militia that marched on an 
expedition against the Indians about the northern 
lakes. On his return from this expedition he entered 
into the mercantile business. At the conunencement 
of hostilities, vvc find him on the Conunittec of Safety 



GEN. ELIAS DAYTON. 85 

for Elizabeth-Town. In 1775 or 1776, he was ap- 
pointed to the command of one of the New-Jersey 
regiments, and continued at its liead until 1782, when 
he was promoted to the command of the New- Jersey 
Brigade, He was in several of the principal battles of 
the Revolution, and had three horses shot under him, 
one at Germantown, one at Springfield, and one at 
Crosswicks Bridge. After serving his country, and 
proving himself a brave man and a skilful officer, 
and gaining for himself a high place in the esteem 
of Washington, on the close of the war, he resumed 
his mercantile pursuits in this town, in which he 
continued until his death, which took place in 
1807. 

Afier he retired from the army, at the conclusion 
of peace, he was several times elected to the Legisla- 
ture of New- Jersey ; for several years he served as 
Mayor of the Borough ; he was the first President of 
the Cincinnati of New Jersey, and for many years 
served as President of the Trustees of the First Pres- 
byterian Church. In the latter capacity, we find the 
following letter directed to him by Dr. Boudinot : 
Pfiiladelphia, Feb. 26, 1800. 

Dear Sir : Shall I request the favor of your pre- 
senting my respectful compliments to the Trustees of 
the Presbyterian church in Elizabeth-Town, of whom 
1 presume you are still President, and beg their ac- 
ceptance of a pair of cut glass chandeliers, for the use 
of their church. 

The many happy hours I have spent there, make 
8 



86 CEN. ELIAS DAYTON. 

the remembrance of having been one of iheir society, 
among tlie substantial pleasures of my life. 

I have sent the chandeliers in two boxes, numbered 
one and two, by the sloop Sally, Captain Denike, di- 
rected to you, to the care of Mr. Jona. Hampton Law- 
rence, in New-York. The receipt of the officer you 
have enclosed. 

Be so good as to give immediate directions that, 
when taken out to be sent to Elizabeth-Town, tbey 
may be put into the cart upon an armful of hay or 
shavings, and carted with great care. Any person, 
who has any knowledge of the form of chandeliers^ 
can easily put them together, after they are care- 
fully washed. They were in excellent order when 
boxed up about ten days ago. 

I am, dear sir, with great respect, 

your very humble servant, 

ElIAS BOUDINOT. 

P. S. Mrs. Boudinot and Mrs. Bradford join me in 
respectful compliments to Mrs. Dayton and the whole 
family. 

Gen. Elias Dayton. 

Rising by his own merits from comparative obscu- 
rity to station, eminence, and usefulnet^s ; and having 
obtained for himself by his patriotism, bravery and 
services, a rank among the fathers of our country, his 
name deserves to be had in remembrance. 

Nor is the name of Francis Barber to be omit- 
ted from the list of able and patriotic men given by 



COL. FRANCIS BARBER. 87 

Elizabeth-Town to fight the battles of our indepen- 
dence. He was the son of Mr. Patrick Barber, who 
came to this country from Ireland, about the year 
1750. He first located himself in Princeton, where 
Francis was born in 1751. He graduated in the Col- 
lege of New^-Jersey, afier securing for himself a dis- 
guished reputation for his classical attainments. As 
we might infer from the character of its first settlers, 
much attention was paid to the subject of education 
by the people of this town from its first settlement. 
And to this we may attribute the strong influence 
which for a long time it maintained in the Province. 
We find in 1767, a Mr. Pemberton and a Mr. Reeves 
at the head of a school which was badly accommoda- 
ted with a building. A subscription was raised in the 
town, made payable to the trustees of the First Pres- 
byterian Church, for the erection of a building, on the 
condition that as long as Pemberton and Reeves con- 
tinued, they should have the exclusive control of the 
school, but that when they resigned it, it should pass 
under the care of the trustees. With the- avails of 
this subscription, together with one hundred pounds, 
being a legacy left to the First Church, by a Mr. Jo- 
seph Ogden, the old Academy, burned down during 
the war, was erected on the spot where the Lecture 
Room of the First Church now stands. The individ- 
uals appointed to superintend its erection, were Mr. 
Smith, Mr. Spinning, Dr. Wm. Barnet, and Nehemi- 
ah Wade. From year to year visitors were appointed 
by the trustees to attend the examination in this 



So COL. FRANCIS BARBER. 

school. In 1769, Reeves and Pembeiton leave l!ie 
school, when Mr. C;iltlwell, Dr. Chandler, John Chet- 
wood, Elias Boudinot, and others, were apponited to 
procure a good teacher. These gentlemen, fit judges 
of the competency of applicants, select Mr. Barber, 
who is installed as rector of the school. With distin- 
guished reputation, lie continues at its head until the 
commencement of the v;ar, when both teacher and 
many of the scholars, leaving the qiviet pursuits of 
science, fly to arms for the defence of their country. 
In 1776, Mr. Barber receives a commission from Con- 
gress as Major of the third battalion of New- Jersey 
troops; and at the close of the year, he was appoint- 
ed Lieutenant-Colonel of the third Jersey regiment. 
Subsequently be became assistant inspector general 
under Baron Steuben, who expressed the highest 
opinion of liis ability and services. 

Col. Barber was in constant service during the 
whole war. With his regiment, he served under 
General Schuyler at the north. He was at the bat- 
tles of Tinconderoga, Trenton, Princeton, Brandy- 
wine, Germantown, and Monmouth ; and came near 
losing his life in the latter. He was actively engaged 
at the battle of Springfield. In 1781, he was at the 
capture of the Biilish army at Yorktown. And al 
the close of the war, and on the very dny on which 
Washington was about to announce to the army the 
signing of the treaty of peace, he was killed iu the 
vicinity of Newburg, as he was riding along the edge 
efa wood, by the falling of a tree upon liim. He 



ABRAHAM CLARK. 89 

was a fine scholar, a skillful and brave officer, and 
rendered great and important services to his country. 
He has many descendants, who may well be proud of 
his name and fame. His son, George C. Barber, was 
for many years a Trustee of the First Church, and died 
whilst bearing the office of one of its Ruling Elders. 

Although no wreath of military glory entwines his 
blow, and his name stands entirely disconnected with 
all narratives of battles lost or won, the memory of 
but few of the men contributed by New- Jersey to the 
Revolutionary contest, should be more ardently cher- 
ished than that of Abraham Clark. As a native 
of Elizabeth-Town, as a signer of the Declaration of 
Independence, as a member and Trustee of the First 
Presbyterian Church, he demands at our hands a 
brief notice. 

He was the only son of Alderman Thomas Clark, 
and was born in Elizabeth -Town, on the 15th of 
February, 1726. He was favored with an excellent 
education, and early discovered a peculiar talent for 
mathematics. Although brought up on his paternal 
farm, he was unfitted for its severe labors, by a con- 
stitution naturally feeble. A close and practical stu- 
dent, he soon fitted himself for the discharge of many 
public duties; and his first occupations were convey- 
ancing and surveying. Such was the knowledge 
which he acquired of the law, and his readiness and 
ability to impart advice gratuitously, that he was early 
called " the poor man's counsellor," although he never 
8* 



90 ABRAHAM CLARK. 

entered the legal profession. Under the colonial gov- 
ernment he was High Sheriff of Essex county, Clerk 
of the Assembly, and Commissioner to settle undivided 
commons. But neither the emoluments of office, nor 
the prospects of distinction, could induce him to side 
with the oppressors of his country, and we find him 
at the commencement of hostilities, in the front ranks 
of the phalanx of American patriots. 

He is an active member of the Committee of Public 
Safety of Elizabeth-Town, of which we have already 
spoken. He was a constant assistant at the popular 
meetings of the people. In conjunction with Richard 
Stockton, John Hart, Francis Hopkinson and Dr. John 
Witherspoon, he was appointed by the Provincial Con- 
gress in 17765 a delegate to the Continental Congress, 
and with his compatriots, in July of this year, he 
signed his nanje to the Declaration of Independence. 
In November he was again elected by the Provincial 
Congress, and with the exception of 1779, we find 
him a member of the Continental Congress until 
1783. In 1786 he was again elected, and also for 
the two following years. During this long period of 
service in the national councils he was an intelligent, 
active, laborious and useful member. When he was 
not in Congress, he was usually a member of the 
State Legislature, where his influence was both safe 
and predominant. He was more than once the can- 
didate for Governor in opposition to Governor Li- 
vingston. 

In 1787 he was appointed a member of the General 



ABRAHAM CLARK AND OTHERS. 91 

Convention which framed the Federal Constitution ; 
but he was prevented by ill health from attending 
that illustrious assembly. He was appointed in 1790 
a member of the Second Congress, which appoint- 
ment he continued to hold until a short time previous 
to his death, which took place in the autumn of 1794. 
He died in the 69th year of his age, and his ashes 
repose in the grave-yard of the Presbyterian Church 
at Rahway. 

Patriotism, unbending integrity and piety were the 
characteristics of this excellent and amiable man. 
Although quiet and unobtrusive in liis manners, and 
disposed rather to shun than to seek popular applause, 
yet even at the distance of half a century from his 
death there is upon the mind of the whole community 
the deepest impression as to his great political and 
moral worth. 

In addition to these, might be named Aaron Ogden, 
Thomas Morrell, Oliver Spencer, William Crane, Da- 
vid Lyon, and others. And, perhaps. America does 
not afford another instance of a town of the size of 
this, making such a contribution to the talent, the 
patriotism, the military and diplomatic skill which 
achieved our Independence. And with scarcely a 
single exception, all these men were attached to the 
First Presbyterian Church. And of many of them it 
may be said that they united the most fervent piety 
to the most ardent and quenchless patriotism* 



92 REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Perhaps no part of the provinces sufTeied so severely 
as the eastern part of New- Jersey, during the whole 
Revolutionary contest. This is owing to two causes ; 
it lay adjacent to the city of New-York, and to Stalen 
Island, which remained in tlie possession of the enemy 
to the very last; and there were in it many tories, 
who did all they could to annoy their patriotic fellow 
citizens. And although no battles were fought here, 
like those of Princeton, Trenton or Monmouth, yet it 
was the scene of frequent skirmishes, and of constant 
petty annoyances, which kept the community in a 
constant state of excitement. We shall state some of 
the Revolutionary incidents connected with Elizabeth- 
Town, as far as we have been able to collect them 
from the pages of history, and from those aged ones 
among us, in whose memory they yet live. It is to 
the disgrace of our commonwealth that the Revolu- 
tionary history of New- Jersey remains yet to be 
written. 

In 1776, Sir William Howe appears off Slaten Is- 
land with a very strong force ; and the news spreads 
alarm through New-Jersey. Livingston, at the head 
of the militia, fixes his camp at the Point, now con- 
sidered the most exposed and important place in the pro- 
vince, and commences putting it in a state of defence. 
Then was the fort built whose foundations were only 
removed by the recent improvements there ; and 



REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 93 

ditches were dug and ramparts lluown up across all 
the roads and paths leading to the town. In addilion 
to these, a breastwork was thrown up about a mile 
long, reaching from tlie Old to the New Point, which 
was mounted with a few cannon ; but we do not learn 
that these works were ever of any material use. They 
were built in a rude and unskilful manner, and but 
little calculated to protect our men, or to repel the 
enetny. 

There was here a Committee of Safety early ap- 
pointed, whose duty it was to see that the community 
received na detriment, and which seemed to exercise 
a kind of military power over their fellow^ citizens. 
Of that committee. General William Crane, Samuel 
Lyon, Jonathan Pierson, Abraham Clarkj and others, 
were members. 

Hearing that a British transport and provision ship 
was on the coast, the Committee resolve, at all ha- 
zards, to captme her. They ordered out four armed 
boats, and placed the liule armament under the com- 
mand of Elias Dayton and William Alexander, called 
Lord Stirling. Oliver Spencer, then a ruling elder of 
the First Church, was captain of one of the boats, and 
Thomas Morrell.of another. They came in sight of 
the vessel about forty miles from Sandy Hook ; and 
putting all their men under deck, they were mistaken 
for pilot, or fishing boats. The boats of Captains 
Morrell and Spencer being the fastest sailors, came 
first up with the ship ; and lifting their hatches and 
pouring their men on its deck, they captured hei 



94 REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 

without the loss of a man, and with scarcely a show 
of resistance. She proved to be tlie Blue Moun- 
tain Valley, Captain Dempster, mourning twelve car- 
riage guns, and manned with about forty men, of 
three or four hundred tons burthen, and laden with 
provisions for the British army. By the way of Am- 
boy she was brought to Elizabeth-Town Point, where 
she was dismantled and her cargo landed. This da- 
ring and heroic act, which obtained great popularity 
for all concerned in it, was performed in the summer 
of 1775. 

On the retreat of Washington from the Hudson 
through New-Jersey to the Delaware, the royalists in 
every part of the country became at once exceedingly 
abusive and cruel to their more patriotic fellow citi- 
zens. Feeling that all hope of obtaining independ- 
ence must be surrendered, and fearing no longer any 
dread of punishment from the republicans, they cast 
off all restraint. And their excesses were very great 
in East Jerse}'. New-York was in the possession of 
the enemy flushed with victory ; and the mercenary 
Hessians, who considered themselves released from all 
respect to humanity and juslicCj and the British troo|)s, 
but little restricted in their career of. crime and plun- 
der, went at liberty through East Jersey. Our citi- 
zens were taken out of their beds at night and con- 
veyed to New York, where they experienced every 
sort of ill treatment.* They were shut up in the fa.- 

» Botta's Am. Rev. i. 397. 



REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 95 

mous Sugar House, and in churches, without any 
provision for their comfort. They were fed on ali- 
ment the sight of whicii excited disgust. The sick 
were confounded with tlie healthy ; and all were alike 
exposed to the most shocking defect of cleanliness, and 
to the outrages of the soldiers, and especially of the 
loyalists. A confined and impure air, together with 
unhealthy food, engendered diseases of which more 
than fifteen hundred perished in a few weeks. Some 
of the officers made prisoners were carted through the 
city, though wounded and nearly naked, for the sport 
of the populace ; and some of them were caned for 
attempting to make some provision for their fellow 
soldiers who were dying of disease and hunger in 
their infected dungeons. But very few of the old 
families of our town, except those who opposed tke 
liberty of their country, which did not make their 
contribution to this list of sufferers. 

And where individuals escaped being made prison- 
ers by the nightly marauding parties, led on by the 
lories, their cattle were driven off* and killed, their 
barns and cellars were plundered, their wives and 
daughters were insulted, and, in many instances, their 
houses were demolished or burned. The English 
officers restrained from some of these excesses their 
own soldiers ; but there seemed no restraint to the 
Hessians and the tories. And Eastern New- Jersey 
presented only the vestiges of havoc and desolation. 

The winter of 1780, when Washington was en- 
t:amped at Morristown, was one of severe trial to the 



y 



96 REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 

army, arising from the want of provisions and of pay. 
Rumors were rife among the British that tlie army 
was dissatisfied, that whole regiments were deserting, 
that the soldiers were in rebelUon against their officers, 
and that New- Jersey was anxious to exchange iier 
government, and to return to lier allegiance to the 
crown. Believing these reports, Knyphausen was 
despatched with his mercenaries to New-Jersey, and 
on the Gth of June, under the cloak of night, landed 
at the Point with about five thousand men, from Sla- 
ten Island. Early in the morning, he commenced 
his march to Morristown ; but as he passed along he 
soon experienced the falseness of the reports as to the 
disposition of the people; for he was annoyed from 
every bush, and every wood, and almost every tree, 
ap6 he passed along. He halted at Connecticut Farms, 
and as is stated, at the request of Governor Tryon, 
who was with him, he ordered the village, the church, 
and the parsonage, to be reduced to ashes. The 
Presbyterian church there, like many others in tlic 
country, was used as a barrack for the American 
army. It was on this occasion that Mrs. Caldwell 
was murdered. A refugee walked up to the win- 
dow, and seeing her surrounded by her children, 
with an infant in her arms, deliberately shot her 
through the heart. Her murdered body was drawn 
from the house, and laid by the wayside, when the 
torch was put to her dwelling, which was soon in 
ashes. Having burned the Farms, he marched (o- 
v/ards Springfield; but learning next morning, tha-t 



REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 97 

Washington had marched an army to meet hhn, he 
returned to the Point, greatly annoyed by httle parties 
that every where concealed themselves. In about 
two weeks afterwards he marched again upon Spring- 
field, with five thousand infantry, a large body of ca- 
valry, and several field-pieces. After a brave resist- 
ance, conducted by Major Lee, Colonels Dayton, An- 
gel, Shreve, Ogdeii, and Captain Walker, our men 
are repulsed. The English take possession of the 
town, and soon reduce it to ashes. The serious oppo- 
sition he meets deters him from prosecuting his plans 
farther. On the afternoon of this day he returns to 
the Point, and during the night he passed over to Sta* 
ten Island. There was a large bridge of boats across 
the water separating the Point from Slaten Island ; 
and on the following morning not a vestige of it is to 
be seen. 

It was on this second march of Knyphausen upon 
Springfield, that the following incident occurred : As 
the main body had turned the corner opposite the pre- 
sent residence of Mr. Richard Townley, a few young 
men, in the very sight of the army, and within mus- 
ket shot of it, captured the guard, and baggage, and 
horses, of a Colonel Fox. The baggage was after- 
wards sold at auction for upwards of one thousand 
dollars ; and one of the four prisoners being a colored 
man, was taken to Pliiladelphia, and there sold into 
slavery. Among the individuals engnged in tliis ex- 
ploit were Samuel Harriman, David Woodrufif", Jesse 
Woodruff", Elihu Gale, Elihu Ogdcn, James Chandlerj 
9 



SS REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS; 

Henry Inslee, and Mr. David Lyon, who yet survives^ 
and narrates the event. And some of the plate of 
Col. Fox, bearing npon it the figure of a fox, is now 
in possession of the descendants of Mr. Harriman. 

The following is among the most daring exploits 
of the Revolution. A colonel of the American army 
being taken prisoner, and there being no British officer 
of a similar grade in their possession with whom to 
redeem him, three men enter on tlie perilous enter- 
prise of taking a colonel from the very midst of the 
enemy then stationed on Staten Island. They cross 
the Sound on a dark night, and as they approach the 
house where several officers were located, they find it 
strongly guarded. They steal by the guard, and take 
their stand near a window ihiough which they can 
see what is going on within. Watching an opportu- 
nity, they suddenly enter the house, and putting a 
pistol to the breast of a colonel, order him to march 
out as their prisoner, threatening, in case of the least 
noise or resistance, to shoot him. They take him 
away from his companions, and through the guard 
by w^iich the house is encircled, and deliver him safe- 
ly in this town by sunrise the next morning. Mr. 
Henry Willis, whose death occurred but a few months 
since, was one of these three valiant men. This da- 
ring act was a matter of common talk even in the 
British court. 

As early as 1758, whilst the French war was ra- 
ging, we find an act of the Legislature of New-Jerseyj 
directing Barracks (o be erected in Burlington, Tren- 



REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 99 

ton, New-Brunswick, Anriboy, and Elizabeth-Town, 
competent each for the accommodation of three hun- 
dred men. It was ujider this act that the Barracks 
were erected which for nearly a quarter of a century 
stood on the rising ground in Cherry-street, directly in 
the rear of the residence of Mr. Nathan Sayre. It 
was a building three stories high, and extending from 
the street to the river, facing the South. By an act 
of 1770, Edward Thomas was appointed Barrack 
Master. Up to the commencement of hostilities, it 
was occupied by the royal troops, but subsequently it 
was possessed by the continental soldiers. It was 
early reduced to ashes by the enemy. The First 
Presbyterian Church and the Court House were then 
thrown open for the accommodation of our soldiers; 
these, together with the Parsonage, which, when de- 
serted by Mr. Caldwell, was converted into a hospital, 
were reduced to ashes. When Colonel Barber, with 
some of his scholars, deserted the Academy for the 
army, the building was converted into a storehouse. 
This also, after being plundered of its provisions, was 
fired by the enemy ; and whilst burning, a Mrs. Eg- 
bert, whose death has occurred within two or three 
years, rolled out of it twenty-six barrels of flour, as- 
sisted by a few other females, at the risk of being shot 
down on the one hand by the British soldiers, and of 
being burned up on the other. These, with a few 
buildings towards the Point, are the only ones, as far 
as we can learn, that were destroyed during the war, 
in this towo- 



100 EEVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS- 

But with all ihe brilliancy of the picture of the pa- 
triotism of Elizabeth-Town, that picture has its shade?. 
What was then called "London trading" — the sup- 
plying of the British with provisions, for which they 
paid high prices — was carried on to a great extent, 
both by whigs and lories. Tiie most ardent friends of 
their country, were frequently caught at midnight on 
their way with provisions to Slaten Island. Of this fact 
Washington often seriously complains. Of this evil, 
Gov, Livingston llius writes to Washington : " This 
evil, instead of being checked, hasgrawD tosoenormous 
a height, that the enemy, as 1 am informed, is plentiful- 
ly supplied with fresh provisions ; and such a quantity 
of British manufactures is brought back in exchange, 
as to enable the persons concerned to set up shops to 
retail them. The people are outrageous, and many of 
our officers threaten to resign their commissions." 

And subsequently, in a letter to a mcnibor of Cor>- 
gress, Livingston thus describes the corrupting and 
demoralizing influence " London trading'- produced on 
Elizabeth-Town : "Solitary, indeed, is Q,ueen Eliza- 
beth's namesake to me, at present; wlien, instead of 
my quondam agreeable companions, the village now 
consists of unknown, unrecommended strangers, guilty 
looking tories, and very knavish whigs."* 

Amongst the most notorious and malignant loyal- 
ists of this part of the country was Cornelius Het- 

•Sedgwick's Livingston, 245 — 6. 



REVOLUTIONARY INCIDENTS. 101 

FIELD. His name and fame will be long remembered 
in East Jersey. His father was a man of excellent 
character, a Ruling Elder in the Church, the ardent 
friend of Caldwell and of his country. He manifested 
in early life an ambitious and reckless spirit. At the 
commencement of hostilities with Great Britain, he 
was an ardent patriot. A candidate for the captaincy 
of a company of militia raised in this town, he failed 
of his election, and an individual to whom he bore a 
bitter enmity was raised to the command. From that 
day he declared iiostilily until death to his country, 
and the friends of its freedom. He joined the British 
on Staten Island, and was placed at the head of the 
refugees, whose duty it was to carry on the work of 
pillaging and plundering at night, and -of annoying 
the whigs in all possible ways, except that of honor- 
able and open resistance. He was at the head of 
nearly all the midnight marauding parties that plun- 
dered and captured our fellow citizens. It was he 
that applied the torch to the Church and the Court- 
House, and was heard to lament that the " Black 
Rebel," as he called Caldwell, was not burned in his 
pulpit. About the time when Huddy, of Tom's River, 
was executed in New-York, he was one of a company, 
who, in a drunken frolic, hung a whig, by the name 
of Ball, at Bergen Point. Inheriting from his father 
a large plantation in this town, he returned here after 
the peace ; when he was taken and tried for the mur- 
der of Ball. Colonel Ogden and Major Chetwood 
9* 






102 PETITION TO CONGRESS 

were his counsel; atid noUiing saved liini froni the 
gallows, but the clause in the Treaty of Peace which 
secured the pardon of all offenders for all oflfences 
committed during the war. Finding that there was 
no safety for him here, as he was liable to be shot at 
any nioment, he letired to England, where he died 
not many years ago, at an advanced period of life. 

We here insert the following document, because of 
its connexion with the events now brought under re- 
view. It was submitted to Congress with the affidavits 
of very respectable individuals, to the accuracy of all its 
statements, but the claim was denied : 

To the iionorable tho Senate and House of Representatives of 
the United States in Congress assembled : 

We, the Pastor, Session, and Trustees, of the First 
Presbyterian Church of Elizabeth-Town, in the 
county of Essex, and State of New-Jersey, respect- 
fully present to your honorable bodies the following 
memorial : 

The church of which we are now the ecclesiastical 
and corporate officers, is the oldest formed by the En- 
glish in our state. It dates its origin from the year 
1666, and was organized by our fathers soon after the 
settlement of our town. They, in the infancy of our 
community, erected a building for the worship of God, 
and dedicated it to that holy purpose ; and for nearly 
fifty years it was here the only temple consecrated to 
the service of Jehovah. Considering the lime and 
circumstances of its erection, it was large and com- 



IN BEHALF OF THE CHURCH. 103 

modious. As the population increased, it was en- 
larged by an addition of twenty feet in 1760; when 
it was a substantial building, with galleries, a high 
steeple, a bell, and a town-clock. And as this was 
the chief town for many years in the province, it was 
always kept with great neatness, and in a fine state 
of repair. 

On the first settlement of our town, a large town- 
lot was set apart for the use of the pastor, on which 
our fathers early erected a parsonage-house as a resi- 
dence for their successive ministers. Tt was a long 
building, a story and a half high, and ample for the 
accommodation of a large family. Tt was, like the 
church, the public property of the congregation. 

Feeling a deep solicitude for the education of their 
children, our fathers, at a very early day in our his- 
tory, here erected an Academy. It was substantially 
built of wood, two stories high, and amply commo- 
dious for all the purposes of its erection. For many 
years it was the most celebrated institution of the kind 
west of the Hudson. In it a Burr, who once filled the 
chair of President in your Senate chamber, and a 
Jonathan Dayton who presided in the House of 
Representatives, an Aaron Ogden, a Stephen Van 
Rensselaer, and others not unknown to your council 
chambers, nor to their country, received the first rudi- 
ments of their education. In that academy were laid 
the foundations of the College of New- Jersey now 
located in Princeton ; and w ithin its walls President 
Jonathan Dickinson taught the first classes ever coa- 



104 PETITION TO CONGRESS 

nected with that institution. This also was the pro- 
perty, and was under the supervision of the Trustees 
of our church. 

When the glorious war of our Revolution com- 
menced, which resulted in our independence, these 
buildings were all standing and in good repair, and 
each devoted to the purposes of its erection. The 
Rev. James Caldwell was then the pastor of this 
church. His name and his fame are interwoven 
with the history of his country, and are as dear to the 
state as to the church of God. Influenced not less by 
his sense of our wrongs than by the impulses of Ins 
vigorous mind and glowing enthusiasm, he became 
early and deeply interested in the conflict, and devoted 
all his powers no less to the freedom of his country 
than to the service of his God. Such was his influ- 
ence over his people, that with few exceptions, they 
became one with him in sentiment and feeling ; and 
thenceforward he and they were branded as the rebel 
parson and parish. To the enemies of his country 
he was an object of the deepest hatred ; and such was 
their known thirst for his life, that while preaching the 
gospel of peace to his people, he was compelled to lay 
his loaded pistols by his side in the pulpit. To avoid 
their vigilance and violence, he was compelled to de- 
sert his own home, with his large family of nine chil- 
dren, and to seek a temporary residence in the interior. 
The parsonage thus vacated by him became the rest- 
ing-place of our soldiers. And to deprive them of its 
shelter, and to vent a rankling enmity toward its 



m 
mi 



IN BEHALF OF THE CHURCH. 105 

rightful occupant, it was fired and burnt by the 
enemy. 

The church in which our fathers worshipped God, 
also became the resting-place of our soldiers on several 
occasions. There they lodged after the labors of the 
day, while its steeple was their watch-tower, and its 
bell pealed forth in quick succession the notes of alarm 
on the approach of danger. And for the purpose of 
depriving them of its shelter, and out of enmity to 
the patriotic and eloquent occupant of its pulpit, it 
was reduced to ashes by the enemy, on the night of 
the 25th of January, 1780. 

At the sound of the tocsin of war our academy was 
deserted. At their country's call, its scholars ran fioni 
their masters, and with them, to the rescue ; and it 
was converted into a store-Uouse for the provisions of 
the American army. This, also, after plundering it 
of its provisions, was reduced to ashes by the enemy, 
who immediately retreated to their camp on Stateii 
Island, carrying the beef and pork taken on the tops 
of their bayonets. 

Not satisfied with this, the accomplished wife of 
our beloved pastor was shot by a British ruffian, on 
the 7th day of June, 1780, while she was with her 
children in the retirement of her closet, praying tliat 
victory might perch on the banner of her country. 
And on the 24th of November, 1781, our beloved 
pastor himself was shot by another ruffjan, a sentinel 
of our own army, bribed to the horrid deed by British 
gold. Thus, in the course of a few months, we wera 



106 PETITION TO CONGRESS 

deprived of our Church, and of our Parsonage and 
Academy, and of our beloved Pastor and his wife ; 
and so scattered and weakened and impoverished 
were we by the war, that for seven long years we were 
without a sanctuary in which to worship God. And 
yet amid these accumulated ills our fathers never fal- 
tered for a moment. Tliey felt that, however dark 
and lowering was the morning, that at eventide there 
would be light. However, in other parts of our coun- 
try, they may have been separated, on this soil prayer 
and patriotism were united. The one inspired the 
other with courage and confidence. 

As a people, we suffered as much in the loss of our 
citizens in battle as any town of the same population 
in this land. The blood of our fathers and brothers 
and neighbors mingles with the soil of Flatbush, and 
Monmouth, and Princeton, and Trenton, and Bran- 
dysvine, and Germantown. But for (Iipir sufferings 
and blood, we feel amply repaid in the possession of 
that broad inheritance of civil and religious liberty 
which they so dearly purchased for us. 

As a congregation we contributed our fair propor- 
tion to the civil and military service of the Revolution. 
To the army we gave a Dayton, father and son, a 
Spencer, an Ogden, and, as chaplain and commissary, 
our beloved Caldwell. To the state and national 
councils we gave a Boudinot, a Livingston, a Clark, a 
Dayton, an Ogden. Where, in our land, is tliere 
another congregation which has made a like contribu- 
lion ? And we feel not merely proud, but thankful to 



IN BEHALF OF THE CHURCH. 107 

God, that we were enabled to send such men to the 
field and to the cabinet in the day of darkness and 
peril, when wisdom to direct was as necessary as valor 
to execute. 

Owing to our vicinity to Staten Island and New- 
York city, the grand depots of the enemy, we suffered 
very much as a people from midnight alarms and 
plunder, from the burning of our houses and pioperty, 
and from the taking of our ciiizens from (heir beds 
and fields as prisoners, and incarcerating ihern in the 
famous Sugar House in New-York. Bat these things 
we regard as necessarily incidental to the great con- 
test ; and a few old Romans there are yet among us 
who remember the cup of wormwood, but who yet 
rejoice in sufferings that have resulted so gloriously. 

For these things we ask no remuneration. Con- 
gress could grant us no equivalent. We would not 
sell the laurels we have won in the Revolutionary 
contest for the public domain. We mention these 
things merely to show you the amount of our contri- 
bution to the wisdom, and valor, and firmness, and 
suffering, which achieved our glorious independence. 

All that we desire now from our country is a com- 
pensation for our public property destroyed ; and de- 
stroyed because of being converted to public purposes 
for the benefit of the American army. And the evi- 
dence that our Parsonage, and Church, and Academy, 
Were so used, is hereby respectfully submitted with 
this our memorial. 

And such is our sense of honor, that we do not wish 



108 CONDITION OF THE CHURCH 

to draw from the nnlional treasury the small compen- 
sation hereby soHcited, unless it is considered right- 
fully our due. 

Elizabeth-Town, N. J., Feb. 29, 1840. 

Nicholas Murray, Pastor. 

SESSION. 

David Megie, John J. Hryant, 

Alexander Ogilvie, Elias Winans, 
townley mulford, jonas w. winans, 
James F. Meeker, James Ros.s, 

"VViLLiAM Brown, Edward Sanderson. 

Joseph S. Meeker, 

trustees. 
Elihu Brittin, Pres't. Oliver Pierson, 
John Stiles, A. S. Hetfield, 

William F. Day, M. M. Woodruff. 

-Joseph Hindes, 



CHAPTER VIII. 

We return again to the history of the First Presby- 
terian Church. At the opening of the year 1782. the 
Chuich aiid the community wdre in a deplorable con- 
dition. The Church edifice was reduceil to ashes, its 
Pastor, having ft\llen by a ruirian hand, was in his 
grave ; the people were scattered and peeled; many 
of them were sulTering in the army ; many in the 
famous Sugar House ; widows and orphans were 



AFTER MR. CALDWELl's DEATH. 109 

multiplied in every direction ; the Episcopal Cliurch 
was a stable, and its Rector had retired to Eng-land. 
There was no house in which to worship God, save 
the old red Store House, given by Elder Cornelius 
Hetfield ; nor was there any Minister, statedly to 
break to the people the bread of life. A darker day 
this community never saw. And yet but few, if any, 
Sabbaths passed away without religious services of 
some kind. When there was no Minister to preach, 
sermons were read and prayers were offered by the 
Elders. After the witiidrawal of Dr. Chandler, Dr. 
Uzal Ogden preached in the Episcopal Church, divi- 
ding his Sabbaths betv.'een Newark and Elizabetlv 
Town. He was a man of great zeal, liberality, and 
piety ; and multitudes of all persuasions flocked to 
hear him preach. His pungent and powerful appeals 
were blessed to the exciting of unusual attention to 
religion ; and a great revival ensued. And at this time 
many of the tnost stable and devoted christians which 
this part of the country has ever seen, were brouglit 
into the Church, some of whom continue until the pre- 
sent day. And all feel that when the last of theni 
have taken their departure, we shall not soon see their 
like again. Mr. Armstrong, afterwards of Trenton, 
preached here for nearly a year, commencing in Oo 
tober, 1782, but losing his health by an attack of the 
measles, he was compelled to retire ; when the coi>- 
gregation was without any regular ministrations until 
1786. 

10 



no DR. ELIAS BOUDINOTi 

There was connected with the Church at this time 
a man whose name deserves to be had in remem- 
brance. We refer to Dr. Klias Boudinot. He was 
born in the city of Philadelphia, on the second of 
May, 1740, and was a descendant of one of those 
pious Huguenots, who, on the revocation of the edict 
of Naniz, fled to this country, in order to escape the 
horrors of papal persecution. After completing a course 
of classical preparation, he studied law with Richard 
Stockton, a member of the first Congress, and whose 
eldest sister he afterwards married. When adu)itted 
to the bar, he selected this town for his residence, and 
lived several years in the old building, now almost in 
ruins, and known as the Whitlock House, in Mea- 
dow-street, next south to the residence of Mr. James 
G. Nuttman. His settlement here must be nearly 
simultaneous with that of Mr. Caldwell, of whom he 
was ever the attached and devoted friend. His piety, 
probity, patriotism and talents soon enabled him to 
rise to the first rank of his profession, and biought 
iiim up to public notice. He was appointed by Con- 
gress to the important trust of Conuiiissary General 
of prisoners, and fulfilled its duties with great pru- 
dence and humanity. In 1777, he was elected a 
Member of Congress, and in 17S2, he was made its 
President. In this capacity he had the honor of put- 
ling his signature to the Treaty of Peace, which es- 
tablished his country's independence, lie was for six 
years a member of Cotigress mider the present Con- 
Btitution ; and, on the death of the celebrated Ritten- 



UR. ELIAS BOUDINOT. Ill 

house, he was appointed by Washington Director of 
the National Mint. On resigning this office, he retired 
to the city of Burhtigton, where, surrounded by affec- 
tionate friends, and visited by strangers of distinction, 
he filled up life in the exercise of tiie highest chris- 
tian duties. His memory wiil be long precious to the 
friends of science and reHgion, for his munificent ben- 
efactions whilst living, and his princely legacies in his 
last will. Whilst yet in its infancy, his large dona- 
tions placed tlie American Bible Society, of which he 
was the first President, upon a sure and firm founda- 
tion. With a heart expanded by the noblest princi- 
ples of christian benevolence, he liberally contributed 
to various institutions whose objects were the exten- 
sion of literature and religion ; yet his most liberal 
bequests were to the General Assembly of the Pres- 
byterian Church, and to its Theological Seminary at 
Princeton, of which Church he was an exemplary 
member. His book on the origin of our Indian 
tribes, called "A Star in the West," and his able reply 
to the Age of Reason, entitled " The Age of Revela- 
tion," bear ample testimony to his piety and learning, 
and to his ability as a controversialist and writer. In 
his last will, he left a legacy to the First Presbyterian 
Church of this town, for the purpose of founding a 
Ministerial Libraiy, This christian, patriot, philan- 
thropist, and scholar, died in the city of Burlington, 
October 24lh, 1821, in the 82nd year of his age.* 

* For many of ttiese facts I am indebted to the late Judge Bay- 
ard, of Princeton, who was a relative, and one of the executors 
of Dr. Bou,dino.t. 



U2 



NEW CHUKCH EDIFICE. 



After the close of the war, the citizen soldiers who 
had survived the conflict returned to their homes, and 
to the pursuits which ihey had deserted for the camp. 
And although greatly impoverished, and many of 
them without houses of their own, they soon resolve 
to erect a house for the worship of God. In 1784, 
the first minute is made in reference to the new build- 
ing, and that is a record of a vole of the congrega- 
tion, that "the parsonage land against Mrs. Jelf's 
should be mortgaged to raise money to build a 
Church." In that year, then, we presume its foun- 
dations were laid in fear and trembling ; and it was 
dedicated to the worship of God, by Dr. Alexander 
jVJcWhorter, about the tirst of January, 1786. But 
yet for several years it remained in a very unfinished 
and uncomfortable state; the Minister preaching frora 
a rough platform of boards, and the people sitting 
upon rough planks. To assist in completing it a lot- 
tery was granted by the State, called the " Elizabeth- 
Town and Nev-'-Brunswick Church Lottery," from 
which was realized about fifteen hundred dollars. This 
one fact shows that we may possibly improve on the 
wisdcun of our fathers^ however we may fall below 
them in energy. Collections for the purpose were also 
made in Newark, Bloomfield, and some other places 
specified in the accounts of the Treasurer. In No- 
vember, 1792, after a sermon by Mr. Austin, a collec- 
tion for the stone steps, and for paving the street, was 
taken up, amounting to fourteen pounds. So that whilst 
it was commenced in 1781, and dedicated in 1786, it 



REV. DR. WILLIAM LINN. 113 

was not completed until 1793. For its beautiful spire, 
and much of its its interior comfort, it is indebted to 
the zeal and energy of the Rev. Mr. Austin. To pay 
ofi* tbe debts incurred by its erection, much of the par- 
sonage property was sold. For this purpose, the par- 
sonage lot where Dickinson and Caldwell lived, and 
on which the old Parsonage stood, was sold in 1792 

After remaining for nearly six years without a settled 
ministry, the Rev. William Linn, D. D., was here 
installed on the 14th of June, 1786. Dr. Linn was 
a native of Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1752. 
When he was but twenty years of age, he graduated 
in the College at Princeton, and soon thereafter we 
find him one of the Chaplains of the Revolutionary 
army. In 1784, he was the Rector of an Academy 
in Somerset county, Maryland, where he acquired a 
high reputation as a teacher and scholar. From that 
place he removed to this town in 1786. He remained 
here but a few months, as in the November after his 
settlement, he received and accepted a call to the Re- 
formed Dutch Church of the city of New-York, In 
consequence of declining health, v;hich it was suppo- 
sed a change of air might benefit, he removed Jo the 
city of Albany, where he died in 1808, having nearly 
completed his 56th year. He was a very po|H)lnr and 
useful Minister. He was the father of tlie Rev. John 
Blair Linn, the poet and orator, who died at the ago 
of 27, Pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of 
Philadelphia ; and who gave promise, had his lifs 
10* 



114 REV, DAVID AUSTIN. 

been prolonged, of being one of the ablest, as he was 
one of the most eloquent, divines of our country, A 
daughter of his was the wife of Simeon Dewitt, for 
many years the Surveyor General, and one of the 
most prominent citizens, of the State of New-York, 

The successor of Dr. Linn was the Rev, David 
Austin, whose name and fame will be long remem- 
bered in this part of the country. He was born in 
New-Haven, in the year 1760, His father was one 
of the earliest settlers of that place, and was a man of 
great respectability, of piety, and wealth. He was for 
many years Collector of the Customs, and afterwards 
a successful merchant. David was the eldest of a 
numerous family, all the members of which who lived 
to maturity, becatne truly pious. He was early fitted 
for college, and graduated at Yale, in 1779, After 
graduating, he pursued his theological studies with 
Dr. Bellamy, of Bethlehem, in his native state, and, 
according to the custom of tiiat day, was soon licensed 
to preach the gospel. He preached with great accept- 
ance, and, in several places, was strongly solicited to 
settle as a Pastor. Having determined to visit Eu- 
rope before taking a pastoral charge, he declined all 
these proposals, some of which were highly flattering 
and advantageous. He spent some time in foreign 
travel, and returned with an ardent desire for the 
work of the ministry. He married Miss Lydia La- 
throp, of Norwich, whose father was a wealthy and 
highly respected citizen of that town, and shortly af- 



REV. DAVID AUSTIN. J 15 

lerwards, September 9th, 1788, he was hera ordained 
and installed Pastor. 

From the time of his settlement he continued his 
labors here, greatly beloved and extensively useful, 
until the close of 1795. The effect of a natural ec- 
centiicity, connected with the most enlarged benevo- 
lence, which his private fortune enabled him to exer- 
cise, was only to increase the number of his ardent 
friends. In that year he had a violent attack of scar- 
let fever, from which he but slowly recovered, and 
which very seriously affected his mind. During his 
recovery he commenced the study of the prophecies, 
and the effect was soon obvious in a mental derange- 
ment from which he never wholly recovered. When 
he resumed his labors, he commenced preaching on 
the 60th chapter of Isaiah, from which he taught the 
doctrine of the personal reign of Clirist, and that his 
second coming was to take place on the fourth Sab- 
bath of May, 1796. The attention of the people now 
became wonderfully excited, and such was the rush 
from neighboring towns, that multitudes on the Sab- 
bath could not get room to stand in the church. 

At length the appointed day drew near. On the 
previous evening a meeting was held for prayer and 
preparation in the Methodist church, and the house 
was crowded. He dwelt on the history of the Nine- 
vites who repented at the preaching of Jonah, and 
exhorted to imitate their example. Weeping and 
mourning were heard in all parts of the assembly. 
The next day the sun rose with more than its usuaJ 



116 REV. DAVID AUSTIN. 

splendor, and a vast multitude of people crowded the 
house and surrounded it. But the da}' passed away 
without any unusual occurrence ; and many of his 
followers were only now convinced that he was under 
a delusion, and that he deluded them. His friends 
hoped that disappointment would dissipate his delu- 
sion, and the session remonstrated with him ; but his 
ingenuity soon found excuses for his Lord's delay, 
and his enthusiasm was only inflamed. He charged 
his Session, and the members of the church that op- 
posed him, with the sin and guilt of Uzzah, and 
stated that it was because of the mere mercy of God 
that they did not suffer his punishment. At this time 
he took the vow of a Nazarite, and preached inces- 
santly, sometimes three sermons a day, through this 
part of the country. Wherever he went crowds fol- 
lowed him, and God overruled the excitement he pro- 
duced to the conversion of many souls. His great 
theme was the near approach of the personal reign of 
Cinist upon earth ; and that as Joshua led the Jews 
into the promised land, as John Baptist was the fore- 
runner of the Saviour, so he was appointed of God to 
bring in the glorious millenial reign of righteous- 
ness. 

Finding the congregation seriously agitated by his 
proceedings, and having declared that lie was about 
to establish a new church upon earth, a public meet- 
ing was called and a committee of eleven appointed to 
wait upon him. They stated their grievances, asked 
some questions as to his future proceedings, and re- 



REV. DAVID AUSTIN. 



117 



quested in reply a written answer. The following is 
his answer: 

" To Jonathan Dayton, of the committee of eleven 
appointed by the Congregation of Elizabeth-Town 
to wait on Mr. Austin, their Pastor, in respect to 
the present course and object of his Ministry, and 
of the concerns of llie Congregation in general : 

"In conformity to the request of the Committee, that 
the answer to their application might be given in 
writing, it may be said — 

"In respect to that part of the paper read, which 
hinted at and complained of an avowed design of the 
Pastor to institute a new Church, and to set up a 
new order of things in ecclesiastical concerns, "inde- 
pendent of Presbytery, of the Synod, or of the Gen- 
eral Assembly ;" it may be openly answered, that 
such is my fixed and unalterable determination ! For 
a warrant thus to proceed, reference may be had to 
the third and sixth chapters of the prophec}' of Ze- 
chariah, and to many other passages of scripture, 
which foretell of these things and of these days. 

"On the testimony of the scriptures, and on the in- 
ward teachings of the Holy Spirit of God, and on the 
present aspect of Providence, and on uncommon and 
extraordinary revelations of the mind and will of God 
to this point, dependence is had in proof of a special 
and designating call to proceed in this solemn and 
interesting work. 

" Be it known, then, to the Couimittee and to iho 



118 REV. DAVID AUSTIN. 

Congregation, and to the Presbyterian Churchj and 
to the world at large, that such extraordinary call I 
do profess to have received, and that it is my glory- 
openly to avow, and solemnly to profess my determi- 
nation to maintain and to discharge the duties of it, 
through the faith of that power and constant grace 
which hath called and accompanied me in this con- 
cern thus far ! 

" Under such impressions, standing collected and 
firm, I again announce to the Committee, to the Con- 
gregation, and to all concerned, that implicit obedi- 
ence to the voice of Heaven is my fixed determina- 
tion ! 

" Let this declaration be productive of what conse- 
quences it may, be it remembered, that the anticipa- 
tions of Divine support are so ready and abundant, 
that the instrument of the Divine designs feels him- 
self ready, and professes himself willing, to meet all 
obstacles and to brave all dangers, in the prosecution 
of the noble object which Infinite Wisdom hath placed 
before him. 

" The baptism of the cloud, and of the sea, opened 
the journey of God's ancient Israel towards the goodly 
land, and answeringly to the former example, the 
present course of spiritual journeying is now to be 
taken up ; and if the scenes of the ancient warfare 
are again to be repeated, faith in God pronounces his 
eternal arm to be mightily sufficient to secure the vic- 
tory in every conflict in which his own shall be en- 
gaged ! and it may be well for opposition to the pre-. 



REV. DAVID AUSTIN. 119 

destinated purposes of God to remember, that the disas- 
ters of those whose carcases fell through unbehef, and 
the utter extirpation of those who stood in the way of 
the advancing forward of the host of Israel in search 
of the goodly land, are but a lively figure of what 
those are to expect who are found imitating their 
faithless and wicked example in these later days. 

"Submitting the whole concern to the unqualified 
sovereignty of God, and to the decisions of those to 
whom these presents may come, subscribe to the con- 
gregation, an affectionate Pastor, and to the people of 
God in ^every place, an unfeigned friend, and servant 
of God in Christ Jesus. David Austin. 

" Eliz/Town, Friday, April 7th, A. D. 1797." 

Twelve days after the receipt of the above answer, 
the following petition was sent to the Presbytery of 
New- York, with which the Church was then con- 
nected : 

"At a meeting of the Elders, Deacons, Trustees and 
members of the First Presbyterian congregation in 
Elizabeth-Town, at tiieir Meeting Mouse, on Wednes- 
day, the 19th day of April, 1797, at two o'clock in the 
afternoon of that day, agreeable to adjournment, Mr. 
Elias Dayton was chosen Moderator, Mr. Aaron 
Ogden, Clerk. Resolved, unanimously, that the fol- 
lowing petition be presented to the Presbytery of New- 
York, at their next session : 

"The Elders, Deacons, Trustees, and members of 
the First Presbyterian Congregation in Elizabeth- 



120 REV. DAVID AUSTIN. 

Town, respectfully petition the reverend Presbytery of 
New- York, to dissolve the pastoral relation now sub- 
sisting between the Uev. David Austin and said Con- 
gregation, provided they are of opinion that the follow- 
ing reason is a sufficient foundation for the applica- 
tion, namel}', the declaration of the Rev. Mr. Austin's 
intention to set up a new Church, independent of 
Presbytery, Synod, or General Assembly ; as will fully 
appear by an acknowledgment under his own hand, 
and herewith sent. 

"Resolved, unanimously, that Messrs. Jeremiah Bal- 
lard, Benjamin Corey and Shepard Kollock, be a com- 
mittee for the purpose of presenting the foregoing pe- 
tition. Elias Dayton. 

'' Attest, Aaron Ogden, Clerk." 

The following is the decision of the Presbytery in 
the case, which, whilst it dissolves his pastoral rela- 
tion to the Congregation, and protests against his er- 
rors, and warns the Churches against him, yet bears 
ample testimony to his moral character. 

" Thursday, May 4, 1797. 

*• The consideration of the petition from Rlizabetlr- 
Town was resumed. The Commissioners from I he 
Congregation of Elizabeth-Town being asked whe- 
ther they had any thing further to ofTer respecting the 
business, answered, "Not at present." Mr. Austin being 
then called upon to know whether he had any thing 
to ofifer, res|)ecting the petiiion and application before 
Presbytery from the Congregation of EIizabeth-Towr>, 



REV. DAVID AUSTIN. 121 

replied, That he had no objection to the Presbytery^s 
deciding upon that petition as they should think pro- 
per; and that he took this opportunity to signify his 
intention to withdraw, and declared that he actually 
did then withdraw from his connection with this Pres- 
bytery, and from all Presbyterial connection and gov '.-^. 
ernment. 

" The parties being removed, the Presbytery pfo- 
ceeded to deliberate and to form a judgment upon the 
case ; and, after due deliberation, unanimously judged 
that the way was clear for granting tlie prayer of the 
petition from the Congregation of Elizabeth-Town, to 
have the pastoral relation between Mr. Austin and said 
Congregation dissolved, and did accordingly dissolve 
it, and hereby declare the Congregation vacant. 

"With respect to Mr. Austin's declaration of his having 
withdrawn from his connection wilh this Presbyterj'') 
and from all Presbyterial connection and government, 
they also unanimously declare that they are sensibly 
and tenderly aflfected upon the occasion, and sincerely 
lament the unhappy circumstances which have led to 
these measures. And whilst it is their wish to treat 
Mr. Austin's person and character with all possible 
delicacy and tenderness, and whilst they declare that 
they have nothing (o allege against his moral char- 
acter, yet, as they are clearly of opinion that Mr. Aus- 
tin is, and has for more than a year past, been under 
the powerful influence of enthusiasm and delusion, 
evidently manifested by his giving credit to, and being 
guided by, supposed revelations and communications 
II 



12^ REV. DAVID AUSTIN. 

of an extraordinary kind ; iiis alleged designation 
and call to particular important offices and services ; 
his undertaking to fix the precise time of the com- 
mencement of the Millenium to the fifteenth day of 
May last, and to designate the circumstances of its 
commencement ; and his present declaration of his 
intentions to institute a new Church, and to set up a 
hew order of things in ecclesiastical concerns ; and 
his having persisted and stiil persisting in similar 
views and conduct, notwithstanding his having been 
faithfully and tenderly dealt with on this head by the 
Presbytery in an extra-judicial capacity, as well as by 
individual members. The Presbytery having taken 
these things into consideration, feel themselves boundj 
in justice to the Church of Christ in general, and par- 
ticularly to the Congregations under their care, to de- 
clare that they cannot recommend Mr. Austin as one 
who, whilst under the influence of this enthusiasm 
and delusion, promises usefulness in the service of the 
gospel ministry ; but, on the contrary, feel it to be 
their duty solemnly to caution all against giving heed 
to any irrational and unscriptural suggestions and im- 
pressions, as delusions of Satan, the effects of a disor- 
dered imagination, tending to mislead, deceive and 
destroy the souls of men, and to affect the union, the 
peace and the harmony of the Church of Christ." 

After his removal by the Presbytery from his Congre- 
gation, Mr. Austin preached in the surrounding country 
for a short while, when he returned to New-Haveni 



i 



REV. DAVID AUSTIN, 123 

Believing in the literal return of the Jews to the Holy 
Land, and that New-Haven was to be the place of 
their embarkation from this country, he erected houses 
and a wharf for their use. Unable to pay the debts 
he incurred, he was innprisoned for some time. During 
his confinement his mind seemed in some measure to 
recover itself; but yet on the subject of prophecy was 
distracted. He returned to this town in 1804, when 
being refused admission to his old pulpit, subscriptions 
were circulated for putting the Methodist Church into 
a state of repair, for his use. The object was obtain- 
ed, and he preached there for a sliort wliile, but the 
state of his mind now became obvious to all ; his 
friends could no longer encourage him, and he again 
returned to New-England. His mind gradually emer^ 
ged from the cloud that obscured it, and he again en* 
ters upon a career of usefulness. His excellent wife, 
possessed of an ample patrimony, exerted a most happy 
influence upon him, and greatly aided in restoring his 
mind to its former balance. For a number of years 
he preached in vacant churches in the eastern part of 
Connecticut. In 1815, he received a call from the 
Church in Bozrah, where he was installed on the 9th 
of May of that year. Here he preached regularly 
and with great acceptance and success until his death, 
which took place at Norwich, February 5, 1831, in 
the 72nd year of his age. 

Mr. Austin was decidedly one of the most popular 
preachers of his day. Up to the time of his great 
affliction, no man coqld be ip.ore universally beloved 



124 REV. DAVID AUSTIN. 

and admired. Dignified in personal appearance, pol- 
ished in manners, eloquent in his public performances, 
giving ail his goods t© feed the poor, he exerted a com- 
manding influence, not only over his own congrega- 
tion, but also over many of the lending minds of his 
day. His memory was retentive, and his conversa- 
tional powers extraordinary. His devotional exercises 
were peculiarly happy and impressive ; and all who 
remember him testify, (hat few have ever surpassed 
him in public prayer. Besides performing a great 
amount of pastoral labors, he did good service for the 
theological literature of the country. He edited and 
published a Commentary upon the liible, some of 
President Edwards's most valuable works ; and he 
commenced a monthly publication of original sermons 
by living ministers, which reached its fourth volume, 
under the title of " The American Preacher.'' When 
at the high noon of his fame and usefulness that thick 
cloud fell upon his intellect, which was never wholly 
removed during his life. We have seen but one pro- 
duction of his in print, " The Downfall of the Mysti- 
cal Babylon," save his " Proclamation for the Mille- 
oial Empire," published in folio sheet, in New-York, 
in 1805.* 

We have dwelt thus long and thus minutely on the 
history of Mr. Austin, because of the great veneration 

• We are indebted (o the Eev. D. R. Austin, of Sluibridgc, 
Mass., the Rev. John Hjde, of Franklin, Con., and Mr. Sime- 
on Abell, of Bozrah, Con., for many of the facts and state. 
menls of this narrative. 



REV. JOHN GILES. 125 

in which he is yet held by many of those who will 
feel an interest in this volume, and because of the les- 
son which it teaches to all those who either teach or 
favor the revived fanaticism of a personal reign, and 
the speedy destruction of the world. 

The successor of Mr. Austin was the Rev. John 
Giles. He was born in England, and whilst pur- 
suing a course of classical study became hopefully 
pious, and at an early age. Having completed iiis 
theological studies at Homerton, he was ordained and 
installed pastor of an Independent church in Welling- 
ton, Somersetshire, on the 26th of September, 1786. 
Here he continued for nine years, preaching the gos- 
pel with great success. His love of civil liberty, and 
his abhorrence of the ecclesiastical oppression he wit- 
nessed around him, induced the desire to seek for his 
rising family a home in this country. With this ob- 
ject in view, he sought a dissolution of his pastoral 
relation to his people, and whilst preparing for his 
voyage received an invitation to become the pastor of 
New Chapel, in Castle-street, Exeter, which by the 
solicitation of friends he was induced to accept ; and 
he was settled there in 1795. With this people he 
remained three years, and from a small, distracted 
band, he raised them up to be a large and flourishing 
and united church. In 1798 he embarked with his 
wife and six children to this country, where he land- 
ed in September. He came to this town in June, 
1799, and buried his wife here on the 5th of August 
11* 



126 REV. HENRY KOLLOcK. 

following. He was installed on the 4th of June, 1800; 
but such was the effect of the death of his wife on 
his health and spirits as to unfit him for pastoral du- 
ties ; and he sought and obtained a dismission in the 
following October. After regaining liis health, he 
subsequently settled in Newburyport, Mass., in 1803, 
where he continued, useful and beloved, until his 
death, which took place September 28, 1824, 

Bringing with him ministerial manners and habits 
to which the people were unaccustomed, his ministra- 
tions were not at first very popular ; but they subse- 
quently became so. Fie was an earnest, very ortho- 
dox, and useful preacher. He brought with him the 
highest testimonials of character to this country; his 
subsequent career showed that they w^ere merited, and 
by a faithful and stainless ministry of twenty-one 
years he embalmed his memory among the people 
amid whose tears and lamentations he went up to his 
reward in heaven.* 

The successor of Mr. Giles was the Rev, Henry 
KoLLocK. As an able and deeply interesting memoir 
of him is written by his brother, the Rev. Shepard 
K. Kollock, which is prefixed to a posthumous edition 
of his Sermons, in four volumes octavo, but little 
need be said in regard to him here. He was ordain- 

* For tlie materials from which this brief narrative is com- 
piled, I am indebted to Mrs. Titcomb, of Newburyport, a daugh- 
ter of Mr. Giles, and to a sermon preached at his funeral by tho 
Rev. Samuel Porter Williams. 



REV. DR. JOHN RrDOWELL. 127 

ed and installed in this place, December lOih, 1800. 
After a brilliant ministry of three yeais, of whose 
^isefulness there are yet living witnesses, he removed 
to Princeton in December, 1803, because of his elec- 
tion to the office of Professor of Divinity in the Col- 
lege of New-Jersey. He afterwards settled in Savan- 
nah, where he died universally lamented, Decemb&r 
29th, 1819. He was principally distinguished for his 
remarkable eloquence, which was unsurpassed in his 
day in the American pulpit. 

On the 2Gth of December, 1804, the Rev. John 
M'DowELL, D, D. was ordained and installed the 
successor of Dr. Kollock, and continued the Minister 
of the church for twenty-nine years, when he was dis- 
missed, April 30, 1833, to become the Pastor of the 
Central Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia. With 
the exception of Dickinson's, his was tlie longest min- 
istry that the First Church ever enjoyed ; and, probably, 
was the most useful of any. But as he is yet living, 
and although in ihe fortieth year of his ministry, ac- 
tive and useful, what might justly be said of him here 
must be left to his biographer to say, after the good 
fight he has been so long waging is terminated, and 
he has gone up to wear his crown, and with those 
who have turned many to righteousness to shine as 
a star for ever and ever. 



128 PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 



CHAPTER IX. 

Whilst from the first settlement of this town there 
were; probably, some individuals and families whose 
prepossessions inclined them to the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, yet the earliest information we 
have of the affairs of this Congregation commences 
with 1704. In this year, the Society for Propagating 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts, sent here as a Mission- 
ary the Rev. Mr. Brook. He commenced preaching 
at the house of a Colonel Townley, to whom tlie 
Congregation is indebted for the land now occupied 
by their Church and grave-yard. When the house of 
Mr. Townley could no longer accommodate his hear- 
ers, Mr. Brook repaired to a barn, fitted up in a rude 
jnanner, for worship. The great inconvenience to 
which they were thus subjected, induced them to re- 
solve on the erection of a church, whose foundations 
were laid in 1706. Mr. Brook died in 1707, greatly 
lamented by his parishioners, and by the Society that 
sustained him. 

The Rev. Mr. Vaughan, two or three years after 
the death of Mr. Brook, became the Rector of the 
Church, and continued its Minister for nearly forty 
years. He was remarkable for his amiable and social 
virtues, and was popular with his own people. Al- 
though he and Mr. Dickinson were the opposite of 
one another in natural temperament, and were fre- 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 129 

(|uently engaged in vviirm coiUioversy, iheir personal 
relations were always of the most pleasant character. 
The news of the death of Mr. Dickinson was carried 
to Mr. Vaughan just as he was dying, and, amongst 
the last audible words that he was heard to utter were 
these, " O that T had hold of the skirls of brother Jo- 
nathan! ' 

On the death of Mr. Vaughan, the Church was oc- 
casionally supplied by the Rev. Mr. Wood, who at 
the same time supplied the Church at New-Bruns- 
wick, But as the Congregation declined under him, 
application was made to the Society in England for 
a permanent Minister. Mr. Thomas Bradbury Chan- 
dler was then appointed Catechist, and aftei wards 
was ordained Rector of the Church. He subsequently 
rose to distinction, and was in his days amongst iha 
most able defenders of Episcopacy in the country. 
Under his ministry in 1762, the Church received a 
charter from the Crown, which is still the law for reg- 
ulating the temporalitiea of the Congregation. 

" The war of the Revolution," says Dr. Rudd, " had 
a melancholy and ruinous effect upon the concerns of 
our communion. The Church of England being con- 
nected with the slate government of that country, and 
llie circumstance that the clergy of that Church were 
bound by the oath of conformity and allegiance lo 
support and defend the measures of the Crown, led all 
the common people to believe, and all the prejudiced 
partizans of popular government to maintain, that a 
Churchman and a foe to popular libeiiy were synony- 



130 PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

mous terms." Dr. Chandler, on the commencemetit 
of the war of the Revolution, felt it his duty to oppose 
the measures necessary to secure our independence. 
From the active part which he and some members of 
his family took, he soon found his situation very un- 
comfortable, and he retired to England, where he re- 
mained until the close of the war, and for some years 
after. He returned here in 1785, and died in 1790, 
His was a protracted and very able ministry, and Dr- 
Chandler's name will be long known and revered as 
one of the fathers of the Episcopal Church in New- 
Jersey. During the war of the Revolution this Con- 
gregation was greatly scattered, and became much 
enfeebled. The interior of the Church was all de- 
stroyed, the pews and floors were torn up and burned, 
and the building was converted into a stable by the 
enemy. It was, however, soon repaired after the close 
of the war, and was for some time the only Church 
for the worship of God in the town. And after its re- 
pair, and before the return of Dr. Chandler, and for 
some lime afterwards, Dr. Ogden preached in it with 
great power and effect. Dr. Ogden subsequently be- 
came a Minister of the Presbyterian Church. 

In 1789, the Rev. Mr. Spragg, who had previously 
been a Methodist Minister, was elected Rector. He 
was an amiable and affable Pastor, and enjoyed the 
respect and confidence of his people. He died sud- 
denly in 1794, after a brief ministry of five years. 

The Rev. Mr. Raynor was the successor of Mr. 
Spragg. He also had previously been connected \vith 



PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 131 

the Methodist cluirch. He became Rector in 1795 
or 1796. He removed to Connecticut in 1801. And 
the man that gave up Methodism for Episcopacy, 
subsequently gave up Episcopacy for UniversaUsm, 
and we believe yet survives to preach the doctrine 
first announced in Eden by the Serpent to Eve, " Ye 
shall not surely die ;" a doctrine whose claims to an- 
tiquity are beyond all question. 

The next Rector was the Rev. Dr. Beaslf.y. The 
Congregation enjoyed the genius and talents of this 
interesting man but a short while, as he resigned his 
charge and left the state in 1803. Dr. Beasley after 
a long professional and literary career, not a little dis- 
tinguislied, has retired to this town, where at a green 
old age, he is yet pursuing his literary toils with all 
the vivacity and sprightliness of youth. 

The Rev. Mr. Lilly succeeded Dr. Beasley in Au- 
gust, 1803. He served the parish less than two years, 
when he removed to the South, where he died. 

The successor of Mr. Lilly was the Rev. Dr. Rudd^ 
who was regularly instituted in May, 1806, and who, 
after a very successful and popular ministry of twenty 
years, retired in 1826. He is now the Minister of a 
large and important Church in Auburn, N. Y. 

The Rev. Smith Pyne was elected June 1, 1S26) 
and retired in December, 1828. 

The Rev. B. G. Noble was elected March, 1829, 
and resigned in 1833. And the present Rector, the 
Rev. Richard C. Moore, entered upon his duties 
February 16, 1834. 



132 SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

Having, wilhout success, applied to several individ- 
uals competent to the task, for a chapter on the His- 
tory of the Episcopal Church and its Blinisters, we 
have compiled this chapter, mainly relying on Dr. 
Rudd's " Historical Notices of St. John's Church," for 
our facts, dates and statements. We regret the brevity 
of our notes on a Church so ancient, historic and re- 
spectable. 

THE SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 

The various revivals of religion with which the 
First Presbyterian Church was from time to time 
blessed, so swelled the numbers of those who resorted 
there for the worship of God, that large and commo- 
dious as is their house of worship, it could not ac- 
commodate them. As early as the great revival of 
1817, tlie formation of a Second Church was deemed 
necessary ; but for various causes it was delayed 
until 1820; and in the month of March of this year, 
the Second Church commenced separate religious 
worship. 

It is here worthy of note that its erection grew out 
of no dissatisfaction with the pastor of the parent 
church, nor out of any difficulties among the people. 
The people were imiied among themselves, and ar- 
dently attached to their pastor. But those attached 
to Presbyterian doctrine and order, could not be ac- 
com.modatcd in the church, and their number was 
yearly niultiplying. Indeed the pastor himself ori- 



SECOND PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. 133 

ginated the movement ; and some individuals were 
designated to embark in the enterprise. And although 
leaving a house endeared to them by many associa- 
tions, and the ministry of the man who was instru- 
mental in their conversion, yet they felt tliat the 
interests of Presbyterianism and of religion, required 
the sacrifice. And their work, and the blessings that 
have resulted from it, praise them in the gate. 

For more than two years, services where held in 
the old Lecture Room of the First Church in Wash* 
ington street ; and on the first Sabbath of December, 
1820, the church was organized. Like many other 
things that have produced great and good results, it 
was feeble in its beginnings. When the question of 
actual withdrawal from the parent church had to be 
decided, it was found that only thirty families and 
forty communicants were prepared to embark in the 
enterprise. But these few counted the cost, and were 
not to be deterred by difficulties. The number soon 
began to increase. The corner stone of the Church 
was laid June 20, 1821, and on the first day of May, 
1822, it was dedicated to the worship and service of 
God. Since that time it has largely shared in all the 
revivals of religion with which this community has 
been favored — an account of which may be found in 
a subsequent chapter — and many have been added to 
its communion. 

The growth of this Church has been remarkably 
even and gradual. Each revolving year has added to 
its size and strength. Rapidity of increase could not be 
12 



134 SECOND PHESBYfERIAN CHUitcti. 

anticipated. The town itself, increasing but slowly, is 
not now much larger than when this Church was form- 
ed. Yet it has now upwards of four hundred mem- 
bers, and its parent Church is larger in its number of 
communicants, and more prosperous in all its fiscal 
interests, than when this Church was formed out of 
it. And each of these churches is now doing more 
for the building up of the kingdom of Christ at home 
and abroad, than the First Church did in its most 
prosperous day previous to the separation. These 
facts speak volumes as to the duties of large churches 
in our populous and flourishing villages. Many is the 
tree that is benefitted by transplanting a shoot from its 
root, which shoot in a few years may emulate the 
parent stock both in the richness and quantity of its 
fruit. 

The formation of this Church has been a great 
blessing to the town. It has greatly tended to cherish 
and to keep in the ascendancy the religious princi- 
ples which were brought here by the first occupants 
of this soil, and which for nearly fifty years were held 
by the fathers of this community vi'ithout opposition 
from any quarter. 

This Church has never had but one Pastor. The 
Rev. David Magie, D. D., began his ministry with 
this people at the time of their organization ; and he 
is their Minister still. This is a fact worthy of no- 
tice ; the more so, because he and his wife are both 
natives of this town. 



METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 135 

THE METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. 

After no little inquiry we have been unable to find 
much definite information as to the history of this 
Church. The Church itself was formed in 1785 ; 
and those most efficient in its formation were Jonathan 
Morrell and his wife, the parents of the late venerable 
and excellent Rev. Thomas Morrell, who wer« natives 
of Newtown, hong Island, and who removed to this 
place 1771 or 1772. When their Meeting-house was 
erected we cannot learn ; but it was not completed 
until 1804, when its galleries were put up by the 
friends of the Rev. Mr, Auslin. They have been 
favored from time to time with the services of able 
and useful ministers, whose labors have been greatly 
prospered. Its present esteemed Pastor is the Rev, 
Joseph Ashbrook. 

The Congregational Church at Elizabeth-Port, 
whose excellent Pastor is the Rev. Mr. St. John, and 
the Baptist Cliurch, whose Pastor is the Rev. Mr. Cox, 
are of such recent formation, that we deem it only 
necessary to record the fact of their existence in these 
Notes. The first was formed in 1S37 by the Rev. 
Mr. Brown; the other was organized in the fell of 
1843. 



136 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

CHAPTER X . 

In the history of American Revivals of Religion, but 
few portions of tlie country have been more distin- 
guished than this town. And as these successive re- 
vivals have mainly tended to give to t!ie people the 
character for piety, stability, morality and good order 
which they have ever possessed wherevei known, 
they demand and deserve to be placed on record in 
these pages. And as these revivals have been mainly 
confined to the Presbyterian Chuich, so must be our 
account respecting them. Under date of March 5th, 
1832, the Rev. Dr. M'Dowell thus writes to the Rev. 
Dr. Sprague of Albany, who asks from liim an ac- 
count of the revivals with which liis church had 
been favored : 

"Of the early history of this church, 1 have been 
able to discover very httle. It is an ancient church, 
having been founded about one hundred and sixty 
years since. VVhelher it was visited with revivals: 
during nearly the former half of the period of its ex- 
istence, I have not been able to ascertaiiL The first 
revival of which any account has been transmitted to 
us, was in the latter part of (lie ministry of that emi- 
nent servant of God, the Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, 
author of "the Five Points," and of many other val- 
uable works. 

"Of this revival, a particular and very interesting 
account was given by Mr. Dickinson, in a letter to 
the Rev. Mr. Foxcrofl, of Boston, which letter is in 



REVIVx\LS OF RELIGION. 137 

print. From this it appears, that this special work 
visibly commenced in June, 1740, under a sermon 
addressed to the youth. ' The inward distress and 
concern of the audience,' (Mr. Dickinson observes,) 
' discovered itself by their tears, and by an audible 
sobbing and sighing in ahnost all parts of the assem- 
bly.' On the character and efTecfs of this revival, he 
goes on to remark — ' Meetings for sinful amusements 
were abandoned by the youth, and meetings for reli- 
gious exercises substituted in their place. Numbers 
daily flocked to their pastor for advice in their eternal 
concerns. More came to see him on this errand in 
three months, than in thirty years before. The sub- 
jects of tlie vv'ork were chiefly youth. A deep sense 
of sin, guilt, danger, and despair of iielp from them- 
selves, preceded a hope in Christ. All the converts 
were for a considerable time under a law work, before 
they had satisfying views of their interest in Christ. 
The number of those who were savingly the subjects 
of this work was about sixty.' " 

In 1772, this Church was blessed with a consider- 
able revival of religion, under the ministry of the Rev. 
James Caldwell. An account of this revival, dated 
Elizabeth-Town, April 28, 1773, was found in the 
library of the Old South Church, Boston, by the Rev. 
Dr. Sprague. Although long, we here insert it with- 
out abbreviation : 

" Elizabeth-Town, April 28th, 1773. 

" Dear Sir, — With a mixture of pleasure and self- 
diffidence do I now, agreeable to your request, attempt 
12* 



138 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

to give you an account of tlie conslilulion of our reli- 
gious societies. Tlie subject is indeed pleasing, but I 
feel myself unequal to the task. However, I think 
] am writing to one who will pass over with a friendly 
eye W'hatevei may be amiss in tlie matter or maimer, 
and knows how to make allowance for my inexperi- 
ence and youth. If I remember right, you desired 
me to write only the constitution of the societies. In 
order to do this fully, 1 find it absolutely necessary to 
lake a view of the manner in which they have been 
conducted from the beginning to the present lime. 
No previous plan was laid, but we have been directed to 
every measure that has been taken, just as the occasion 
or circumstances required, by an all-wise and gracious 
God, who only knows what methods aie best to carry 
on his work. It will no doubt be agreeable to you, 
if I make some digressions by the way, lo speak of 
the wonderful success that has accompaiiied our fee- 
ble endeavors, though in this I shall go beyond your 
request. God has indeed given us the fullest evidence 
that he is a prayer hearing God. We must turn infi- 
dels, yea, I had almost said atheists, to doubt his gra- 
cious readiness to hear and answer the united requests 
of his people. That Scripture has had its accom-- 
plishment among us, in a manner perhaps scarcely to 
be paralleled by any place around us, ' If two of you 
shall agree on earth, as touching any thing that they 
shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father who 
is in heaven.' And that other. ' Before they call I 
will answer, and while they are yet speaking 1 will 



REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 120 

hear.' Bui not to detain you too long from llie prin- 
cipal thing in view, 1 will endeavor, as far as I am 
able to recollect, and from the best intelligence 1 can 
get, to give you a faiihful account of ilie rise and pro- 
gress of the woik of God in ibis place. 

" 1 cannot find that it began with any thing more 
than the uneasiness of one person about the amazing 
stupidity and sloth fulness of christians in general, and 
the heartfelt sense this person had of the evil effects, 
of the chilling influence which cold christians always 
shed. Many fruitless attempts were made by this 
person to erect a praying society, for about a year. At 
length, however, in the fall of the year 1769, three or 
four young men were collected; who were members 
of a society held upon Saturday evening, tlieoniy so- 
ciety then in town. These met together every Sab- 
bath evening for prayer and other religious exercises, 
but without much appearance of life, or any addition 
to their number, for the space of six months. During 
this time Mr. Caldwell was abroad, but a little before 
his return, two of this society got in some ineasure 
awakened, and made some luiusual attempts to awa- 
ken others, not without success. Mr. C, upon his re- 
turn, was applied to by these persons to set up catechi- 
sing, which had been a long while neglected here. The 
proposal was heaitily complied with, and I believe 
about ten or twelve persons collected. These lectures 
were the means of awakening many careless sinners, 
and of stirring up to greater diligence those who had 
religion, but had been asleep ever since the last revi- 



140 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

val of religion here. Mr. Caldwell finding the work 
increase upon h\s hands, and being sensible of the 
need we stood in of the constant influence of the Holy 
Spirit to give success to our endeavors, and to enable 
him to manage this work, and finding how much he 
needed the prayers of his people, set apart every Mon- 
day evening lo meet with a number of praying souls, 
and to consult measures for the reviving of religion 
among us. In these meetings there was the greatest 
christian freedom used. Mr. Caldwell proposed such 
methods as he thought best, and listened attentively 
to whatever might be suggested by the meanest 
christians. 

" One of the first things proposed in this society, 
was, that every member should have a praying friend 
(o whom he might communicate his difficulties, or 
9,r}y thing in which he needed assistance ; and it was 
no uncommon thing for one christian to be at prayer 
in his closet for another v. ho is his friend, while he was 
attempting to do good to some of his fellow creatures. 
It is impossible to tell all the happy efiects of these 
praying engagements. Our hearts have cemented 
together as one, and through these united prayers and 
endeavors God has wrought wonders among us. An- 
other thing proposed was, that each member should 
fix upon some particular person, with whom he was 
connected, or was most likely to be useful to, and not 
to give over striving with this person, until his ends 
were answered, or there was no encouragement to 
proceed any faither. But a small repulse was not 



REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 141 

thought sutEcieiit to discourage any ; ihis, at least, 
was always held up to view. The liappy consequen- 
ces of complying with this proposal were soon seen. 
Godsucceeded almost every attempt in a most remark- 
able manner. Backsliding christians were recovered 
from their wanderings; careless and secure sinneis 
awakened to attend to the things which belong to 
their peace. Into this society all difficult matters were 
brought, and directions given by Mr. Caldwell accord- 
ing as their nature and circumstances required. He 
oftentimes proposed his own difficulties, and begged 
the prayers of this little number for him. He some- 
times told the subjects he intended to preach upon, 
laid the importance of them upon their minds, and 
sent them home to pray fur him, while he studied for 
them and others. Time was frequently set apart by 
the members of this society for fasting and pra}er. 
After having confessed and bewailed our own back- 
slidings from God, and acknowledged his justice in 
withholding divine influences, and implored the return 
of his Spirit, and revival of religion in our closets, we 
all met together, and Mi. C discoursed upon son^e 
subject suitable to the occasion, and concluded with a 
solemn united address to the Father of mercies, for 
his special presence and assistance in carrying on his 
own work. 

" Tliese seasons of fasting and pruyer we have found 
of special advantage to us in strengthening us against 
our besetting sins. There are some kind of devils 
which go out only by fasting and jnayer. Tin)e was 



142 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

often set apart, likewise, to give in account of the 
mercies of God towards us. Tliis is now done in 
writing. This society continued a long while private. 
At length, however, a great rumor was made about 
private societies. Some people did not understand 
why religious meetings should be private. Curiosity 
prompted some, and a desire of receiving benefit, oth- 
ers, to venture in, and it was found very difficult to 
deny admittance at last to any, so that it became quite 
public, and defeated the end for which it was appoint- 
ed, it was therefore altered from Monday to Thurs- 
day. Of the management of the last 1 shall speak 
presently. 

" The Sabbath evening society mentioned in the 
beginning of this narrative, increased surprisingly, so 
that by this time there were near 150 persons attend- 
ed. Persons flocked in from all quarters of the town ; 
some came fi"om other places, and went home refreshed 
and animated. The lectures upon this evening were 
the most pathelical and pointed I ever heard in my 
life. Persons all about the room were overwhelmed 
wilii tears, and could scarcely forbear crying out. 
Some of every age and character were awakened. 
Some of fifty or sixty years of age were brought to see 
their lost, undone condition by nature, and driven to 
seek help from God with earnestness and importunity. 
Some little children of twelve or thirteen years of age 
were hopefully awakened, and brought to cry out 
what shall we do to be saved ? What an aflecting 
scene was it to see and hear those lambs of the flock 



REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 143 

asking the way to Zion with their faces thither- 
ward ! 

"The Monday evening was now improved in this 
manner. Mr. Caldwell attended as often as possi- 
ble, and, after a short exhortation, liberty was given 
to everyone to propose such difficulties as was thought 
proper. Some would ask the meaning of difficult 
texts of Scripture. Others would propose cases of 
conscience to be solved. Some would ask direction 
in one thing, and some in another, according to the 
various exercises of their own minds, or the difficulties 
they met with from without. But as some persons 
had not presence of mind enough to propose their dif- 
ficulties among so many of a mixed character, it was 
thought best to write them, and give them to Mr. C. 
the week before. And this method gives him the ad- 
vantage of opening each cjuestion more particularly. 
Liberty is still given at the end of each question, to 
enquire into any thing we do not understand, or has 
not been taken notice of in the explication. 

"The Thursday evening society was begun, and is 
carried on in the following manner. No person was 
admitted as a member but such as we had reason to 
hope was a true christian, and he first gave in his 
name to Mr. C. Each member has the fullest liberty 
to propose whatever may appear worth mentioning. 
The first evening the following things were suggested, 
viz. that we greatly needed more of the presence of 
God in our public assemblies, more of the spirit of 
prayer in our closets, more freedom and engagedncss 



144 REVIVALS OF RELIGIOxV. 

in conversation. A quarter of an hour on Monda}'', 
Wednesday and Friday mornings was set apart for 
prayer ; and these matters were to be particularly 
attended to on those mornings, until something new 
was proposed. The grand tiling constantly held up 
as matter of prayer, was the influences of the Holy 
Spirit. With the Spirit we were sure every blessing 
was connected. Any persons belonging to this society 
who labored under difficulties of any kind, were at 
liberty to mention what might be proper, and prayer 
was made for support and direction, upon the morn- 
ings set apart for that purpose. Great care is taken to 
promote tlie study of the Holy Scriptures among us. 
In several of our societies accounts have been given 
in weekly of the substance of several chapters, great 
part of which by some have been committed to mem- 
ory. And now in this society we read fourteen chap- 
ters every week, unless something of more importance 
intei-feres; and a particular account is given in of those 
texts we think respect the latter day glory. Three 
hundred and twenty-one promises were found in the 
prophecy of Isaiah relating to this glorious time. 
Who would imagine the Oible was so fidl of such 
blessed promises, if they judged only from the prayers 
of christians? It is indeed enough to animate every 
lover of Zion, to think that there is a I.tlessed time 
coming, ' When all shall know the Lord fron) the 
least unto the greatest, and his knowledge shall fill the 
€arth as the waters cover the sea.' 

*' A particular account likewise is given in here of 



REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 145 

our mercies and difficulties, in writing, as I hinted 
above. And as this society is collected from ahtiost every 
other society among us, a particular account is given 
in how each society goes on. So that this seems to 
be the fountain whence all the others, as streams, 
flow. Our attempts to revive religion have not been 
confined to ourselves, but have extended to those 
around us. Mr. C, and also many of his hearers, 
have frequently been among the neighboring churcl>- 
es, endeavoring, each in their sphere, (o stir them up 
to prayer and the use of every means to build up Zioii. 
Prayer has been made by each member of this society 
for the blessing of heaven to accompany their endea- 
vors. And that God has heard these requests is man- 
ifest by the effects that followed. In consequence of 
a short visit of iMr. C. to New Hempstead, a great deal 
of good hath been done. Many praying societies have 
been set up there, and many persons awakened to 
attend the means with great earnestness. We have 
had several letters from this place, informing us of 
their proceedings, and I think they are very encoura- 
ging- 

" Praying engagements are entered into betwixt 
that people and us ; and their societies seem to be 
formed upon almost the same plan of ours. There 
has been also some awakening and concern at Spring- 
field and Newark ; and there is now a very encour- 
aging prospect at New-York, owing, in a great mea- 
sure, to a visit Mr. C. made there some months ago. 
I never saw more of the spirit of prayer among any 
1^ 



146 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

people than those of the last mentioned place. Betwixt 
them and us there are hkewise praying engagements ; 
and I am witness there are fervent cries (at least the 
appearance of them) sent up to heaven on each other's 
behalf. 

" The management of the Saturday evening society 
has been almost perpetually varying. At first each 
member of the society presided in alphabetical order, 
and carried on altogether, or asked assistance as he 
thought proper. But as numbers were added to this 
society of those who were very young and not properly 
qualified to lead the exercises, it was thought best to 
choose one who would likely conduct with the most 
decency and good order, to preside constantly. Every 
member, however, takes his turn in prayer. Some- 
times, besides reading a practical sermon, wc consider 
a quesiion given out the week before. Sometimes 
give in an account of our difllculties, and make them 
matter of prayer upon that evening while together, 
and when we have relurned home ; and also upon 
the Sabbath evening following. Sometimes each 
member renders an account of what he has been doing 
the preceding week ; tells the encouragement or dis- 
couragement he meets with in his attempts to do 
good. Tn general, particular notice is taken of all the 
providences of God, and improved for the promotion 
of religion. If any public wickedness has been gQing 
on in the town, we deprecate the judgments of God, 
and earnest prayer is made in all our societies, that 
Binners may be stopped in their career of folly and 



V|a| 



EEVIVALS OP RELIGION. 147 

madness, and their way hedged up that they may 
proceed no further. And many sigtial and remarka- 
ble answers have we seen to those prayers. God haa 
evidently opposed them \n their wickedness ; he hag 
frowned upon them in liis providence, and taken off 
their chariot wheels, (if I may so speak,) that they 
drove on heavily. By this means sinners have been 
often restrained from their pursuits of wickedness, and 
some happily reclaimed. The same method has been 
taken when any other thing appeared that tlireatened 
the growth of true religion. And when we have 
foreseen any thing that would tend to advance the 
Redeemer's kingdom, supplication was made for the 
accomplishment of it. 

"These matters have been so numerous thati can- 
not be particular. However, I may say that I have 
not known one instance, when we have entreated the 
God of heaven to put a stop to public wickedness, or 
to succeed the means to promote some public good, but 
he has appeared in a remarkable manner for the de- 
fence of his people, and graciously answered their 
requests. 

" There was some time ago a society held upon 
Wednesday evening with a design to promote a spirit 
of government, good order, and discipline in families. 
About twenty heads of families, T beheve, met with 
Mr, Caldwell once a fortnight, and consulted measures 
to prevent young persons, servants and apprentices, 
from being out at unseasonable hours of the night, 
spending their time \n frolics and scenes of dissipation. 



148 REVIVALS OF RELIGION^. 

And in this society means were devised to prevent 
tavern-lmunting, gaming, and such kind of vices. 
And some vigorous attempts were made to suppress 
all these evils witii considerable success. Here also 
measures were fallen upon to prevent the misbelia- 
viour of young people in the house of God. Pro{3er 
persons were therefore appointed to sit m different 
parts of tf>e church, to take nolice of every disorder, 
and infornv their parents or masters, if they slighted a 
personal private admonition. And if those who h;id 
them more immedialely under their care, neglected 
their duty, or the oITenders grew obstinate, complaint 
was made to the magistrate, who executed his office, 
unless they promised reformation. There is vast 
alteration in our galleries in this respect. The dis- 
turbers of the public peace are so surrounded witb 
guards, that they dare not go on in the manner tliey 
used lo do. This seemed a lieavy stroke to the dev- 
il's kingdom — he now began to roar aloud. Scan- 
dalous, profane, and threatening letters were sent to 
those who were the most zealous in suppressing these 
evils. And a most infamous libel against Mr. Caldwell 
and some of his friends was nailed up against the 
meeting-house. But these in nowise daunted the 
persons who were thus treated, but ralherexcited then> 
to greater dihgence in promoting the cause they had 
undertaken. They justly concluded that if no good 
was likely to be done, the devil and iiis emissaries 
would not have made such an uproar. 

" I am not able, sir, to tell you the one half of what 



REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 149 

God has done among us. The reformation has been 
extensive and great. Parents have been stirred up to 
seek with uncommon earnestness the conversion of 
their children, and children that of their parents ; the 
rehgious husband tlie conversion of his ungodly wife, 
and the beUeving wife her unbeheving husband. 
Those that have separated themselves from their 
wicked companions that they might serve the Lord, 
have turned back to call tlieir companions to share 
with them the same grace. And many of those who 
had been the ringleaders in vice, are now become the 
zealous promoters of the cause of God. Some of the 
most inveterate enemies to religion, and serious peo- 
ple, and praying societies, have, through the grace of 
God, been brought to see the evil of their ways, and 
to love and esteem those people they once thought be- 
low their notice. Many backsliding christians have 
been recovered, and now are rejoicing in hope of the 
glory of God. Formal professors and hypocrites have 
seen the insufficiency of the external garb of religion, 
while they were destitute of the internal power of it. 
Prayer has been set up in those families where it had 
been long neglected, and in many where it was never 
before practised. Four or five children in some fami- 
lies have been awakened, and we trust found mercy. 
The heads of some families have been so awakened 
that they have gone round to their neighbors, and 
called upon them aloud to attend the means of grace, 
and improve the present season of the outpouring of 
God's Spirit. And they themselves have brought their 
13* 



150 REVIVALS OF RELIGION". 

whole family to town, in hopes that the careless might 
be awakened, and the serious stirred up. Sinners 
have flocked into the church as a cloud and doves to 
their windows. The number of persons added to the 
church the year before last was fifty, and the number 
of praying societies was then eleven. At the con- 
clusion of last year sixty more were added, and all the 
societies amounted to about twenty. Some of these 
consist of men who meet by themselves, some women 
by themselves, and others, little children by them- 
selves. 

" Upon the whole, T think it is undeniable that God 
has been among us of a truth, and set his own hand 
to the work. We have been remarkably kept from 
errors in judgtnent or practice. There have been few 
instances of persons being carried away with enthusi- 
asm, indiscreet zeal, or impulses and revelations. We 
have been very much kept from vain disputes and 
contentions, backbiting and censuring, though the 
devil and evil minded men have endeavored to sow 
sedition among us. Secular business, I believe, has 
not upon the whole been neglected. That time which 
used to be spent in miith and vanity, is now^ spent in 
religion. There have been no remarkable instances, 
as yet, of persons who have made a profession of reli- 
gion drawing back again to the ways of sin. It would 
be strange, if this should not be the case with some, 
when a time of trial and temptation comes. There 
was an apostate in Jesus Christ's little family. I can- 
not indeed say that there has been no instance of any 



REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 151 

one person behaving so that others should be justly 
stumbled concerning his profession, nor do I suppose 
there are no wolves in sheep's clothing. We liave 
reapon to be deeply humbled before God for ourdead- 
ness and want of conformity to him, and that there 
is so much reason for those wlio watch for our halt- 
ing to reproach us and religion. But that God has 
done great things for us, is too evident to need any 
further proof. 

" Thus, dear sir, 1 have given you a particular ac- 
count of God's work here;, and yet, considering how 
great it has been, ai>d how many things are worthy 
to be written, it is but a very brief one. If what I 
have written should be the means of quickening and 
encouraging you to use every means in your power 
to promote religion among the people over Vv-hom you 
may preside, or to spread it among others, (though 1 
were under no singular obligations to you,) I should 
think myself amply rewarded, 

" You have heard from what small beginnings and 
feeble instruments this work took its rise. God has 
as it were begun at the lower end, and made up of 
the weak and foolish things of the world to confound 
the mighty, that no flesh should glory in his presence. 
1 ask your prayers for this town, and would particu- 
larly beg an interest in them for him who is, 
" With much respect, dear sir, 
" Your greatly obliged friend, 

" And humble servant. 



152 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

We again recur to the letter of Dr. M'Dowell to 
Dr. Sprague : — 

'•In 1784, this church was again visited in a spe- 
cial manner with the influences of the Holy Ghost. 
This was just after the close of the revolutionary war; 
and the people were without a house of worship, and 
without a pastor ; the church having been burned and 
the pastor slain near the close of the war. This 
revival continued about two years ; and time has 
abundantly proved that it was a genuine and glorious 
work of God. A number of the subjects are still 
living, and are truly fathers and mothers in Israel. 
Nearly all the session, and almost half the members 
of the church, when the writer settled here, were the 
fruits of this revival ; and he has had an opportunity 
of knowing them by their fruits ; he has been with 
many of them when about to pass over Jordan, and 
from their triumphant death as well as exemplary 
life, he can testify to the genuineness of the work. 

" From the time of this revival to the settlement of 
the writer, there were two seasons of more than ordi- 
nary interest, when the number of additions to the 
communion of the church was considerably increased. 

" The subscriber was settled as pastor of this con- 
gregation December, 1804. In August, 1807, a pow- 
erful and extensive revival commenced. The first 
decisive evidence of the special presence and power of 
the Holy Spirit, was on the Sabbath, under a power- 
ful sermon on prayer, by the Rev. Dr. Gideon Black- 
burn. A number were awakened that day ; and new 



REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 153 

cases of conviclion, and hopeful conversion, were for 
a considerable time occurring at almost every religious 
meeting. The special attention continued for about 
eighteen months, and the number added to the com- 
munion of the church, as the fruits of this gracious 
work, was about one hundred and twenty. The sub- 
jects of it were generally deeply exercised ; and most 
of them continued for a considerable time in a stale of 
distress, before the}^ enjoyed the comforts of the hope 
of the gospel. This revival was the first I had ever 
seen; and it was a solemn situation, for a young 
man, totally inexperienced in such scenes. It was 
general through the congregation, and in a few weeks 
extended into neighboring congregations, and passed 
from one to another, until, in the course of the year, 
almost every congregation in what was then the Pres- 
bytery of Jersey, was visited. 

"The next revival with which the Lord favored my 
ministry, visibly commenced in December, 1812. Ii 
was on a communion Sabbath. There was nothing 
peculiarly arousing ia the preaching. 1 was not ex- 
pecting such an event ; neither, as far as I have evef 
discovered, was theie any peculiar engagedness in 
prayer, or special desire or expectation on the part of 
Christians. I saw nothing unusual in the appearance 
of the congregation ; and it was not until after the 
services of (he day were ended, when several called 
in deep distress to ask me what they should do to be 
saved, that 1 knew that the Lord was specially in this 
place. This was a day of such power, (though I 



154 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

knew it not at the time,) that as many as ti)iity who 
afierwaids joined the church, were then first awaken- 
ed. And it is a remarkable circumstance tliat the 
same powerful influence was experienced, on the same 
day, in both of the Presbyterian churches in the neigh- 
boring town of Newark. It was also communion sea- 
sons in both those churches. This revival continued 
about a year ; and the number of persons *added to 
the communion of this church as its fruits was about 
one hundred and ten. The subjects of this revival 
generally were deeply and long distressed, and in 
many instances, their distress afTected their bodily 
frames. Frequently, sobbing aloud was heard in our 
meetings, and in some instances there was a universal 
trembling, and in others a privation of bodily strength, 
so that the subjects were not able to get home without 
help. In this respect this revival was difFerent from 
any others which I have witnessed. I never dared to 
cpeak against this bodily agitation, lest I should be 
found speaking against the II0I3' Ghost ; but I never 
did any thing to encourage it. It may be proper here 
to relate one case of a young man, who was then a 
graduate of one of our colleges, and is now a very 
respectable and useful minister of Christ. Near the 
commencement of the revival he was led for the first 
time, reluctantly, and out of complaisance to his sis- 
ters, to a meeting in a private house. 1 was present, 
and spoke two or three times between prayers in which 
some of my people led. l^he audience w'as solemn, 
t)Ut perfectly still. I commenced leading in the con- 



REVIVALS OP RELIGION. 155 

eluding prayer. A suppressed sob reached my ear : 
it continued and increased : I brought the prayer 
speedily to a close, and cast my ej^es over the au- 
dience, when behold, it was this careless proud young 
man, who was standing near me, leaning on his chair 
sobbing, and trembling in every part like the Philip- 
pian jailer. He raised his eyes towards me, and then 
tottered forward, threw his arms on my shoulders, and 
cried out, 'what shall I do to be saved?' A scene 
ensued, the like of which I never witnessed. The 
house was full, and there was immediately, by the 
power of sympathy T suppose, a universal sobbing 
through the assembly. He repeatedly begged me to 
pray for him. I felt so overcome with the solemnity 
of the scene, and fearful of the disorder which might 
ensue in the excited state of feeling, that I held this 
trembling young man for half an hour, without speak- 
ing a word. I then persuaded him to go home with 
me, and the audience to retire. His strength was so 
weakened that he had to be supported. From that 
hour he appeared to give his whole soul to the subject 
of religion. He continued in a state of deep anxiety 
and distress for nearly two months, when he settled 
down in a peaceful state of mind, hoping in the 
Saviour. 

"About the beginning of February, 1817, this 
church was again visited with a great revival of reli- 
gion. It commenced most signally, as an immediate 
answer to the united prayers of God's people. The 
session, impressed with a sense of the comparatively 



156 REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 

low state of religion among us, agreed to spend an 
afternoon together in prayer. The congregation were 
informed of this on the Sabbath, and a request made 
that Christians would at the same time retire to their 
closets, and spend a season in prayer for the influences 
of the Spirit to descend upon us. The season ap- 
pointed was the next afternoon ; and that evening 
was the monthly concert of prayer, which was unu- 
sually full and solemn ; and before the week was out, 
it was manifest that the Lord was in the midst of us, 
in a very special manner. Many cases of awakening 
came to my knowledge; and the woik soon spread 
throughout the congregation. This revival was mark- 
ed, not by the deep distress of the preceding, but by a 
general weeping in religious meetings. There was 
doubtless much of sympathy. A larger proportion 
than usual of the subjects were young, and many of 
them children. Some were long in darkness; but 
most of them, much sooner than in either of the 
former revivals of my ministry, professed to have em- 
braced the Saviour. The number in the congrega- 
tion who professed to be seriously impressed, amount- 
ed to several hundreds. The special attention con- 
tinued about a year ; and the nuniber added to th.e 
communion of the church during that time was about 
one hundred and eighty. It was during this revival 
that you visited this place, and spent some time with 
us while a student in Princeton Seminary. 

" About the close of the year 1819, it pleased agra- 
■cious God to grant to this church aiiothcr season of 



REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 157 

special refreshing. This was not so general through 
the congregation as the former; but was confined to 
particular neighborhoods. Christians did not appear 
to be specially awake to the subject, either before it 
commenced or during its progress. The subjects 
were generally from among the most unlikely farai- 
hes and characters ; from the highways and hedges ; 
while the chikhen of the kingdom were generally 
passed by. Tiie special atlention continued about a 
year; and the number added to the communion of 
the church as its fruits, was about sixty. 

"In the early part of the year 1 824, there was a con- 
siderable increase of attention to the subject of reli- 
gion, which continued through the year 1825. About 
sixty were added to the communion of the church 
during this time, as the fruits of (his special influence. 
But the work did not terminate with this ingathering. 
These were but as drops before a mighty shower. 
About the beginning of December, 1825, the work was 
greatly increased. It commenced visibly on a day of 
fasting and prayer, appointed by (he Synod of New- 
Jersey, on account of the absence of divine influences 
from their churclies generally. Within a few weeks 
many were awakened and brought to seek the Lord. 
This revival, with few exceptions, was not marked 
by deep distress, and the subjects of it, generally, soon 
professed to hope in Christ. It continued through the 
year 1826, during which 4,ime about one hundred and 
thirty were added to the communion of this church, 
as its fruits. 
U 



158 



REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 



"In the winter and spring of 1829, a partial sea- 
son of refreshing was again experienced, and about 
twenty-five were added to our communion. Again it 
pleased a gracious God specially to visit some neigh- 
borhoods of the congregation, through the winter and 
spring of 1831. The fruits of this visitation, which 
have been gathered in through the year past, amount 
to about forty. 

" In 1820, a second Presljyterian church was organ- 
ized in the town ; and in the revivals which we have 
experienced since that congregation was formed, a 
similar gracious influence has been enjoyed among 
them. 

" In conclusion, 1 would add, that appearances 
among my people at present are very favorable. 
There is much increase of attention to the means, 
and of solemnity in attending upon them. Many 
Christians appear to be much quickened in duty, 
and to be earnestly praying that the Lord would 
appear again in his glory in the midst of us, to build 
up Zion ; and a number have recently been awaken- 
ed to serious concern about their souls' salvation. We 
are anxiously looking for a time of general revival, 
but what will be the result time must show. 

" With sincere and fraternal respect, 
" I am, dear sir, yours, 

" John M'Dowell. 

" Rev. W. B. Sprague, D. D." 



REVIVALS OF RELIGION. 159 

The above account brings down the narrative of 
revivals in the Presbyterian Churches to nearly the 
close of the ministry of the writer in this town. Since 
then exceedingly interesting seasons of refreshing 
have been enjoyed under the ministry of the present 
pastors of these churches in 1834, 1835, 1836, 1838, 
1842 and 1843. And these revivals, unlike many 
excitements that have prevailed in different sections 
of the country, have been the result of God's blessing 
accompanying the stated means of grace as adminis- 
tered by the pastors of the churches. 



APPENDIX.* 



On page 20 we have recorded the names of the 
)riginal Associates and Proprietors of the Elizabeth- 
Town purchase. In 1699 there was held here a 
town-meeting, composed of all the Associates then 
living, and " those iiolding under them or some of 
tliem," at which the following individuals were ad- 
mitted to the rank and title of Associates, as posses- 
sors, some of first, second, and third lot rights. A 
first lot right is defined, in our old manuscript book, 
to be, " the least and lowest share of all the lands 
contained within the whole bounds and purchase of 
Elizabeth-Town ;" a second lot right " twice as large 
a share and division thereof as the first ; and a third 
lot right is thrice as large a share and division of the 
same premises as a first lot right is." We insert the 
names of this second generation of Associates here, 
for the gratification of their very numerous descend- 

* As we could not well introduce the following facts into the 
Notes, we place them here together, by way of Appendix. 

14* 



102 



APPENDIX. 



ants, stating that the autographs of those of them who 
could write, are in the book fionci which we take their 
names. Not a few of them had to make " their mark." 
Their names are as follows : 



William Looker, 
I, Benjamin Wade, 
John Harriman, 
William Nicholls, 
William Brown, 
Nath'l Whitehead, 
John Thompson,- 
John Woodruff, 
William Hill, 
John Magie, 
Joseph Woodruff, 
Andrew Craig, 
Joseph Hallsy, 
Jacob Mitchell, 
George Thorp, 
Samuol Clarke, 
John Clarke, 



Ephraim Clark, 
Obadiah Soles, 
Jonathan Ogden, 
Samuel Carter, - 
Jeremiah Crane, 
William Miller, 
John Harriman, Jr. 
Abraham Hetfield, 
William Cromer, 
Benjamin Lyon, 
Thomas Darling, 
John Johnson, - 
Benjamin Ogden, 
Samuel Willis, 
John Pearce, 
John Gould, 
Cornelius Hetfield, 



Joseph Whitehead, 
Samuel Whitehead, 
David Woodruff, 
Benjamin Meeker, 
Mordecai Barnett, 
Joseph Lyon, 
Ebenezer Lyon, 
Robert Woolley, 
Dennis Morris, 
John Osborn, 
William Strayhearni 
Nathaniel Lyon, 
John Ailing, 
Andrew Hampton, 
Samuel Oliver, 
Richard Clarke, 
Ebenezer Willson. 



The plan on which the town was settled, was this: 
each proprietor had a town lot in the village, on which 
to build his house; and the farms were located in the 
surrounding countr}'. But few houses were built in 
the country for years after the settlement of the town. 
And the first houses were built on the banks of the 
creek, and near the tide water.. 



Incidents of themselves of a very tiifling import- 
auce, go far to illustrate the character and simple 



APPENDIX. 163 

habits of a people. It is for this purpose we narrate 
the two following facts: 

In 1761, the year in which Mr. Caldwell was set- 
tled in the Presbyterian Church, a Mr. Thomas 
Woodruff is paid two shillings for riding round the 
parish and warning ihe people to a fast. 

In the early part of the same year a man is paid 
two shillings for calling the Elders and Deacons to a 
meeting " concerning Mr. Kettletas." 



The following incidents may reconcile us to some 
of the occasional detentions which sometimes now 
prolong a trip to New- York to ninety or one hundred 
minutes. 

In 1739, the Rev. Mr. Whitefield left New- York 
at noon for Elizabeth-Town. He reached here 
in safety the next day, time enough to dine with the 
Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, and to preach in the after- 
noon. 

And many of our aged ones well remember taking 
passage for Ngw-York at the Point, in the fast sailing 
boats, commanded by those favorite captains, Lee, 
Uzal Woodruff, and Twigley, whose cabins were be- 
tween four and five feet high, and not unfrequently 
lodging atBergen-Point, or Staten Island, when wind 
and tide were adverse. 



164 APPENDIX. 

I find written on the margin of a copy of "Learn- 
ing and Spicer's Grants and Concessions," a minute 
to the following effect : there are also oral traditions 
which confirm its truth. The centennial jubilee, to 
commemorate the settlement of this town, was cele- 
brated here on tl>e 28th day of October, 1764. On 
that day "an ox was roasted on the common, in the 
centre of the town, nearly opposite Mr. Barnaby 
Shute's house." 

We find also the following note in the handwriting 
of Wm. M. Ross, dated "Elizabeth-Town, April 22, 
1811, Monday afternoon." 

" At the time when the ox was roasted on October 
28; 1764, Matthias Williamson, junior, then a youth, 
recollects that the conversation of the period was, that 
none then living would be alive to partake that day 
next century of the ox to be roasted on a similar oc- 
casion, to celebrate the purchase of the town from the 
Indians. 

" They therefore concluded, and passed a resolve 
among themselves, that those who should survive 
half a century, should have another jubilee, as it was 
concluded that some of the guests at this centennial 
dinner might live to see it." 

The reason why this jubilee was held on the 28th 
of October, piobably is, that on that day Governor 
Nicolls granted leave to John Bailey and others, to 
extinguish by purchase, the title of the Indians to 



APPENDIX. 



165 



some portions of land yet in their possession, withia 
the lines bounding the Ehzabeth-Town Grant. By 
extinguishing that title they complete the purchase of 
the whole distiict. The month of August, 1864, 
will complete the second century since the anival of 
Governor Carteret in this town ; and may we not 
hope that the day will be thankfully and joyfully 
celebrated by those who may live to see it. 



The following is an abstract of the last Census of 
Elizabeth-Town, taken from the " Sixth Census of 
the United States :"— 



The whole number of populationj 



4184 



White Persons. 

Males. Females. Totals. 

Of these, under 5 years, 306 316 622 

Between 5 and 10, 241 222 463 

" 10 and 15, 228 193 421 

" 15 and 20, 192 231 423 

" 20 and 30, 348 450 798 

" 30 and 40, 226 262 488 

" 40 and 50, 166 158 324 

" 50 and 60, 72 106 178 

" 60 and 70,, 46 62 108 

" 70 and 80, 27 41 68 

" 80 and 90, 3 10 13 

3906 






166 APPENDIX, 






Free Colored 


Pe 


EISONS. 










Males. 


Females. 


Totals 


Under 10 years, 




35 


28 


63 


Between 10 and 24, 




33 


46 


79 


" 24 and 36, 




28 


34 


62 


" 36 and 55, 




24 


24 


48 


" 55 and 100, 




11 


13 


24 


" 100 and upwards 


1 





1 


Slaves, 







1 


1 



278 



Persons employed in Agriculture, 108 

" " in Commerce, 37 

Manufactures and Trades, 433, 

Navigation of the Ocean, 10 

" of Canals, Lakes and Rivers, 26 

Learned Professions and Engineers, 34 

Pensioners for Revolutionary Services, 3 

Deaf and Dumb, ^ 

Blind, 1 

Insane and Idiots, 2. 

Academies and Grammar Schools, 3, 

Number of Scholars in do. 150: 

Primary and Common Schools, 10 

Number of Scholars in do. 393 

" " at Public charge, 60 
Number of white persons over 20 years 

that cannot read or write, 5. 



X 



'^^•"iX?-"^ 



